Portland NORML News - Friday, January 8, 1999
-------------------------------------------------------------------

City police continue drive to expand force (The Oregonian
notes the police state just got a little bigger in Portland, though
Chief Moose had to comb through the reject pile.)

The Oregonian
Contact: letters@news.oregonian.com
1320 SW Broadway
Portland, OR 97201
Fax: 503-294-4193
Website: http://www.oregonlive.com/
Forum: http://forums.oregonlive.com/

City police continue drive to expand force

* Re-examination of some previously rejected applicants has raised concerns
for some officers

Friday, January 8 1999

By Maxine Bernstein
of The Oregonian staff

The Portland Police Bureau swore in 11 new officers Thursday, raising the
number of recent recruits to 25 as the department rushes to fill two
February academy classes through an accelerated hiring program dubbed
"Operation 80."

Although police administrators say they are optimistic that they will reach
their goal of hiring 80 for the bureau-run classes by Feb. 15, personnel
division Capt. Dennis Merrill said the numbers might fall closer to two
classes of 30, instead of two 40-member classes.

The bureau's intensive recruiting drive, which sent some Portland police to
Hawaii to woo Honolulu officers, has begun to pay off, with four of
Thursday's hires relocating from there and another 10 expected.

But the effort to hire such a large number of officers at one time has not
been without controversy.

Some changes in the way the bureau handles background investigations on
applicants has stirred complaints from officers, who have cited concerns
that the process is being compromised to meet the bureau's short-term hiring
goal.

Merrill said there has been some internal strife about changes in the
process and acknowledged that one background investigator in his division
sent his superiors and an assistant chief a nine-page letter outlining
specific concerns.

The letter questioned why background investigators were asked to re-examine
files of applicants who had been rejected in the past year and cited at
least two cases in which the chief overturned recommendations by
investigators and their superiors not to hire candidates.

Merrill and Chief Charles Moose dismissed the concerns and defended the
bureau's hiring process, calling it fair and equitable.

"I know there was some concern about it internally," Merrill said. "All that
letter does is vent some frustration on the process, and the investigators
got a little bit sensitive that we were questioning their judgment and
giving them more work. Just because we have some internal friction, that's
not news in our book."

Assistant Chief Dave Butzer, who retired this week, instructed background
investigators to pull more than 100 closed files on prior applicants who
were weeded out of consideration within the past year after failing the
background phase.

Top police administrators re-examined the closed files and some were sent
back to background investigators with a request to consider the applicant
further. This was done despite standard rejection letters the bureau already
had sent to some suggesting that they not reapply for three years.

Merrill said the review was to determine whether the bureau was applying
consistent standards in its background investigations. Merrill said some
people complained after being rejected and the bureau wanted to make sure it
was being fair.

Standards unchanged

"It's a little unusual, but we were trying to be fair and consistent
throughout," Merrill said. "Just to 'sanity check' our process, we looked
are we shafting people unnecessarily? None of our review resulted in any
change. The bottom line is we haven't lowered our standards."

Greg Pluchos, president of the Portland Police Association, said "it is
absolutely unheard of" for the bureau to review files of recently rejected
applicants.

"The bureau has always had checks and balances in the whole backgrounding
process to make sure the process is fair," he said. "Why that would have
changed at such a coincidental time is beyond me and raises some suspicions
in anyone's mind."

An applicant reaches the backgrounding phase after passing both a written
and oral exam.

Under state law, people cannot cannot become a police officer if they are
younger than 21, do not have a driver's license or have been convicted of a
felony. In addition, under Portland guidelines, the bureau is not likely to
hire anyone who has a poor driving record, a history of financial troubles,
has misrepresented themselves, not paid taxes, been involved in long-term
criminal activity, had past employment problems, or has demonstrated serious
integrity or character flaws.

A background investigator provides a recommendation to pass or fail an
applicant. Supervisors either concur or reject the recommendation. If the
applicant passes the background phase, a conditional job offer is sent
pending successful completion of both a medical and psychological exam.

Pluchos said the union wants to ensure that the hiring standards are not
compromised, and is sending a letter today to the chief outlining its
members' concerns. The union has no qualms about the integrity of the 25
recruits hired, he said.

Merrill said he knew of one case in which a background investigator and the
officer's superiors recommended an applicant not be hired based on the
person's employment record, but the chief overturned the decision and the
person was hired.

"They're not decision-makers, they're fact-finders," Moose said of the
background investigators. "If they're not comfortable with that, maybe they
shall go find another job. I've not violated anything."

He added, during remarks at the hiring ceremony, "We're not cutting any
corners. We're not hiring any slouches."

Pluchos, though, said concerns should be addressed.

"Standards in hiring are of great concern to our membership and should be of
great concern to the public as well," he said. "The standards of the hiring
of the police they attract here dictate to what kind of police they have
protecting the citizens."
-------------------------------------------------------------------

What's Not To Like? (LA Weekly says Dr. Kathleen Boyle
of the UCLA Drug Abuse Research Center has a problem.
The social psychologist began a two-year study last July into the use
of medical marijuana by people with AIDS. The university-funded project
seeks to document both the satisfaction and dissatisfaction
of medical-marijuana patients and their issues and concerns. The hitch
is that Dr. Boyle can't find anyone who's used it and says it doesn't work
for them.)

Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1999 13:30:28 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US CA: What's Not To Like?
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: DrugSense
Source: LA Weekly (CA)
Copyright: 1999 Los Angeles Weekly, Inc.
Pubdate: 8-14 Jan 1999
Contact: laweekly@aol.com
Website: http://www.laweekly.com/
Author: Michael Simmon

WHAT'S NOT TO LIKE?

Dr. Kathleen Boyle of the UCLA Drug Abuse Research Center has a problem.

The social psychologist began a two-year study last July on the use of
medical marijuana by people with AIDS. The university-funded project seeks
to document both the satisfaction (or not) of med-mar users and their
issues and concerns. The hitch is that Dr. Boyle can't find anyone who's
used it and says it doesn't work for them.

Boyle has been holding focus groups with members of three groups: the Los
Angeles Cannabis Resource Center (a local cannabis club) as well as Being
Alive and the Women Alive Coalition, two community-based AIDS
organizations. She's found that patients find pot wonderfully efficacious
for relieving nausea due to drug therapy and pain management, and adds that
"they also notice a psychological benefit, i.e., relief of depression and
anxiety." The primary concerns of users are driving after medicating, the
potential side effects of smoking any substance and, not surprisingly,
getting busted. Although medical weed is technically legal in California
with a doctor's recommendation, that hasn't stopped law enforcement from
arresting sick people.

While Boyle placed an announcement in the AIDS Project Los Angeles
newsletter and put up signs at the community orgs, not one dissatisfied
customer has stepped forward. "It would lead you to the conclusion that
everyone who's tried it has liked it," says Boyle. "I don't think that's
possible. There's nothing that everybody likes or works for everybody. I'm
reluctant to come to that conclusion. I feel like if I hand in a report
that says it works for everybody, it would be unbelievable."

If you have AIDS, have tried medical marijuana, and it ain't, shall we say,
your bowl of tea, you can reach Dr. Boyle at (888) 333-1764, Ext. 241.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Cop Plays Rebellious Student To Set Up School Drug Busts
(The San Jose Mercury News says a 19-year-old prohibition agent
on her first assignment spent four months undercover at San Benito High
School setting up 25 students in what apparently is the largest drug sting
in the school's history. Police netted one-third of a pound of
methamphetamine, 2,500 hits of LSD, and 20 vials of what's believed to be
Ecstasy. Hinton played her role to the hilt, with a new Mustang, baggy
clothes, slang, and her willingness to spend money. She got into trouble
with school officials so often she spent hours on trash patrol. She was
suspended once and expelled once and was issued numerous detentions
for not completing assignments, playing hooky or cussing out teachers
or the vice principal.)

Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1999 21:09:36 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US CA: Cop Plays Rebellious Student
To Set Up School Drug Busts
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: 8 Jan 1999
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Contact: letters@sjmercury.com
Website: http://www.sjmercury.com/
Copyright: 1999 Mercury Center

COP PLAYS REBELLIOUS STUDENT TO SET UP SCHOOL DRUG BUSTS

Her attitude and dress fooled all

After four months of undercover work by a 19-year-old rookie on her first
assignment, police have arrested 25 San Benito High School students, two of
them adults, in what apparently is the largest drug sting in the school's
history.

More suspects were arrested off the Hollister campus, bringing the total to
23 juveniles and nine adults.

"It's a tragedy for those kids and families. They will suffer greatly as a
result of this, and I am sorry, but the whole campus has to be taken care
of," Principal Tim Shellito said.

Two of the adults, Jesus Alejandro Cordova and Felipe Vallejo, both of
Hollister, were being held in lieu of $100,000 bail after the mass arrests
at the school Wednesday. The names of the other adults were not immediately
available, and the Mercury News is not identifying the juvenile suspects
because of their ages.

All were arrested on suspicion of selling drugs. The students also were
given five-day suspensions and face possible expulsion.

Police said they served search warrants on several houses in the Hollister
area and one in Oakland, netting one-third of a pound of methamphetamines,
2,500 hits of LSD, 20 vials of what's believed to be Ecstasy, two rifles,
two sawed-off shotguns and a .38-caliber handgun.

The drug-buy program was conducted at the request of San Benito High School
officials who two years ago noticed an increase in drug-related problems.
They said they also believed that drug dealers were operating across the
street from the school and that down the block, other dealers had weapons.

Two agencies

The sting operation was coordinated by Hollister police and agents of UNET,
the Unified Narcotic Enforcement Team, of the state Bureau of Narcotics
Enforcement.

But authorities say the key to the success of the San Benito High School
operation was Hollister police officer Alisse Hinton. Nineteen at the time,
she passed for a 17-year-old high school senior with an attitude and a
hunger for drugs.

While there were a couple of tense moments during the four-month operation,
Hinton said, she never once feared for her safety.

"I wasn't scared at all because I knew the people I was working with were
looking out for me," Hinton said.

Hinton played her role to the hilt. She got into trouble with school
officials so often she spent hours on trash patrol. She was suspended once
and expelled once and was issued numerous detentions for not completing
assignments, playing hooky or cussing out teachers or the vice principal.

Only two school administrators knew of the ruse. No teachers were told. No
members of the Hollister department other than Chief J.W. "Bill" Pierpoint
knew of her role.

Her new Mustang, baggy clothes and slang and her willingness to spend money
had campus and off-campus drug dealers eager to do business with her,
authorities said.

In all, she made 65 buys in four months, mostly on campus, according to
Cmdr. Bob Cook of the narcotics unit. Hinton even worked her undercover
role during Christmas break, making two buys. At all times, she wore a wire
and had backup nearby.

Pierpoint said one of the more anxious moments during the four months was
when backup officers in an unmarked car had to tail her all the way to
Oakland for a buy because she was being driven there by four suspects.

Secret hiring

Hinton was recruited for the Hollister force right out of the police
academy at Monterey Peninsula College and sworn in, secretly, by Pierpoint
last June. She spent the summer in undercover training.

In September, while still 19, she enrolled as a transfer senior at San
Benito High. She turned 20 in October.

She said she was impressed by two campus supervisors who went out of their
way to help her, believing she was a troubled and troublesome student.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

'Student' Leads Drug Bust (A slightly different version,
apparently from a different edition)

Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1999 21:00:20 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US CA: `Student' Leads Drug Bust
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Marcus/Mermelstein Family (mmfamily@ix.netcom.com)
Pubdate: 8 Jan 1999
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Contact: letters@sjmercury.com
Website: http://www.sjmercury.com/
Copyright: 1999 Mercury Center
Author: Jack Foley

`STUDENT' LEADS DRUG BUST

San Benito High: Rookie cop enrolled in school, and her investigation led
to many arrests.

After four months of undercover work by a teenage cop on her first
assignment, authorities calmly walked into San Benito High School
classrooms Wednesday and arrested 25 students, two of them adults, in what
apparently was the largest drug sting in the school's history.

Several more were arrested off the Hollister campus, bringing the total to
23 juveniles and nine adults. More arrests were planned, officials said.
The school's enrollment is 2,700.

Two of the adults, Jesus Alejandro Cordova and Felipe Vallejo, both of
Hollister, were being held in lieu of $100,000 bail. The names of the other
adults were not immediately available.

All the suspects were charged with sale of drugs and face criminal
proceedings.

In addition, the students have been slapped with five-day suspensions and
face possible expulsion.

``It's a tragedy for those kids and families. They will suffer greatly as a
result of this, and I am sorry, but the whole campus has to be taken care
of,'' said Principal Tim Shellito, who has a reputation for running a
strict campus to ensure a safe learning environment for students.

As a result of the campus drug operation, police served search warrants on
several houses in the Hollister area and one in Oakland. Police said they
netted one-third pound of methamphetamines, 2,500 ``hits'' of LSD, 20 vials
of what's believed to be a drug called ecstasy, two rifles, two sawed-off
shotguns and a .38-caliber handgun. None of the weapons was found on campus.

The secretive program was conducted at the request of San Benito High
School officials who two years ago noticed an increase in drug-related
problems. Also, they said, they had found out that drug dealers were
operating across the street from the school and that down the block, other
dealers had weapons.

The sting operation was coordinated by Hollister police and agents of UNET,
the Unified Narcotic Enforcement Team, headed by Cmdr. Bob Cook of the
state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement.

UNET is an anti-drug operation that uses personnel from law enforcement
agencies from San Benito and Santa Clara counties in conjunction with the
state Department of Justice's Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement.

But authorities say the key to the success of the San Benito High School
operation was a rookie Hollister cop named Alisse Hinton. Just 19 at the
time, she passed for a 17-year-old high school senior with an attitude and
a hunger for drugs.

Cook called her a ``gutsy'' cop.

The ruse was so well-planned that it included getting Hinton suspended once
and expelled once, along with numerous detentions for not completing
assignments, playing hooky or cussing out teachers or the vice principal.

Discipline duty

In fact, she got into trouble so often she spent hours on trash patrol, a
punishment detail in which students shuffle around the campus stooping to
pick up litter and throw it into garbage cans.

Shellito and Cook said Hinton played her part so well she had teachers and
campus aides believing she was a troublemaker and malcontent.

And her flashy new Mustang, baggy high school clothes and slang and her
willingness to spend money had campus and off-campus drug dealers eager to
do business with her, authorities said.

In all, she made 65 buys in four months, most on campus, according to Cook,
who predicted the sting will put a damper on high school drug activity
throughout the area.

At all times, she had police backup nearby and was wired for sound. She
audio-recorded each buy, he said; backup units videotaped several.

When the students were arrested Wednesday, they were taken from their
classrooms by school officials and plainclothes officers to the band room,
where they were told of the charges against them, all the time being
videotaped.

Surprise for students

Cook said many of the students arrogantly denied any guilt -- but their
jaws dropped, he said, when shortly thereafter they were confronted by a
now-uniformed officer Hinton.

Most signed statements or written confessions on the spot, authorities said.

In what Hollister Police Chief J.W. ``Bill'' Pierpoint said was one of the
more anxious moments during the four months -- Hinton even ``worked'' her
undercover role during Christmas break, making two buys -- backup officers
in an unmarked car had to tail her all the way to Oakland for a buy as she
was driven there by four of what she calls ``the crooks.''

A self-described Bible-reading Christian, the 5-foot, green-eyed Hinton was
recruited for the Hollister force right out of the police academy at
Monterey Peninsula College and sworn in, secretly, by Pierpoint last June.

She spent the summer in intensive training with other agencies for her role
as an undercover agent.

In September, while still 19, she enrolled as a transfer senior at San
Benito High. She turned 20 in October.

Only two school administrators knew of the ruse. No teachers were told. No
members of the Hollister department other than Pierpoint knew of her role.

The secrecy was necessary for her safety, Pierpoint said.

Hinton told the Mercury News on Thursday it was easy to get in with the
drug dealers on campus. But she said she had to become a completely
different person to play the role.

She wore grungy clothes and makeup, which she never wears, she said.

She had to cuss like a sailor, something she said she didn't like doing at
all and never does otherwise.

Felt secure

And she said that while there were a couple of tense moments during the
four months, she never feared for her safety.

``I wasn't scared at all because I knew the people I was working with were
looking out for me,'' Hinton said.

In fact, the assignment was not without its humorous moments, she said --
such as the time she accompanied a drug dealer to his home to make a buy.

``He locked himself in the house (by mistake) and couldn't get the front
door opened,'' she said.

On another occasion, Hinton was taping a phone conversation with a dealer
and inadvertently turned off the recorder before the conversation ended,
and she feared he had heard the machine being turned off. She never dealt
with the dealer again, she said.

There were some touching moments, too, she said. She was very impressed by
two of the school's campus supervisors, who went out of their way to help
Hinton, believing she was a troubled and troublesome student.

``It was just nice to see that they would take the time to help a student,
and they really were trying to help me out,'' she said.

There was a tinge of sadness, she conceded, about a couple of the suspects,
both male and female, whom she had grown to like.

When she confronted the students Wednesday, she said, she expected the
worst -- However, but for a few hostile stares, none said a word to her,
she said.

Her advice to teens?

``Students are changed by drugs, and it's not worth it from what I've
seen.''
-------------------------------------------------------------------

24 Students Arrested In Hollister Drug Sting
(The San Francisco Chronicle version)

Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1999 09:52:30 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US CA: 24 Students Arrested In Hollister Drug Sting
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: Fri, 8 Jan 1999
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Page: A21
Copyright: 1999 San Francisco Chronicle
Contact: chronletters@sfgate.com
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Forum: http://www.sfgate.com/conferences/

24 STUDENTS ARRESTED IN HOLLISTER DRUG STING

Two dozen San Benito High School students were arrested yesterday as
Hollister police and state drug agents broke up an on-campus drug ring.

The arrests were the result of a four-month undercover investigation
in which a female officer posed as a student and made 65 purchases of
marijuana, LSD, methamphetamine and cocaine. Video cameras and tape
recorders secretly recorded the transactions, authorities said.

In all, the unidentified undercover officer made purchases from 27
students at the high school and 10 nonstudent adults.

One of the buys from an adult was for 625 ``hits'' of LSD and led
officers to an Oakland location, where officers seized a large
quantity of LSD and 20 vials of the drug Ecstasy.

The drug investigation began months ago when school officials, acting
with permission from the school board, tipped off police about drug
dealing in the school, which has about 2,400 students.

A young-looking female officer was recruited from a police academy and
given intensive undercover narcotics training, including 80 hours with
the California Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement in Sacramento.

In the fall, she enrolled as a student at the school. Police said she
was offered drugs during her first week on campus.

The students arrested ranged in age from 14 to 20 years old.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

California Officers Charged In Prison Drug Trade (A Scripps Howard News
Service article says the Corrections Department's new Office of Internal
Affairs - created last summer as a result of legislative hearings into
alleged officer abuses at Corcoran State Prison - concluded its biggest
employee drug smuggling case this week at Ironwood State Prison, where
agents found unspecified quantities of unidentified drugs they connected to
Officer Richard Melendez, who was arrested Dec. 30. Corrections officials
do not have any statistics about institutional drug-smuggling cases involving
officers and other prison employees, but two separate investigations at San
Quentin put an officer, two cooks and a parolee with a violent past in
custody, and several other recent cases are described.)

Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1999 11:14:12 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US CA: WIRE: California Officers Charged In Prison Drug Trade
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Marcus/Mermelstein Family 
Pubdate: Fri, 8 Jan 1999
Source: Scripps Howard News Service
Copyright: 1999 Scripps Howard

CALIFORNIA OFFICERS CHARGED IN PRISON DRUG TRADE

SACRAMENTO -- The dealers traded in marijuana, methamphetamine,
cocaine and heroin, through inmate networks in San Quentin, New Folsom
and Ironwood state prisons.

One of them pocketed nearly $20,000, investigators believe. Another
worked in concert with a parolee on the run, they say. A third may
have been one of as many as a half a dozen suppliers in his ring.

And to the consternation of the Department of Corrections, three of
the accused drug kingpins were their own officers.

``It looks at this point like we're going to be able to take care of a
pretty good-sized cancer,'' Corrections Director Cal Terhune said.
``We don't like to find it, but when we do, we want to root it out.''

Corrections officials did not have any statistics about institutional
drug-smuggling cases involving officers and other prison employees.

But they said the cases represent three of the more significant
employee drug-smuggling operations they have unearthed in recent
years. They also said the uncoverings account for some of the most
fruitful work to date of the department's fledgling Office of Internal
Affairs, created last summer as a result of the legislative hearings
into alleged officer abuses at Corcoran State Prison.

``We're trying to send a message,'' said OIA Special Agent Dave
Mansfield, who worked the New Folsom and San Quentin cases.
``Somebody's going to get spanked behind this stuff.''

OIA investigators culminated their biggest employee smuggling case
this week in the Mojave Desert.

At Ironwood State Prison near Blythe, in Riverside County, some 50
officers under the direction of the Sacramento-based OIA swept through
130 cells looking for drugs, finding unspecified quantities of
unidentified narco-contraband, officials said.

They identified the source as Correctional Officer Richard Melendez,
28. He was arrested Dec. 30.

An undisclosed number of arrests may follow, according to
investigators.

``I don't think you could count them on one hand,'' Terhune said,
although he added that some of the suspects are non-sworn staff.
Nothing in the Ironwood investigation has been turned over yet to
prosecutors, according to the Riverside County District Attorney's
Office.

The Ironwood case followed other officer busts involving inmate drug
operations in California State Prison, Sacramento - also known as New
Folsom - and San Quentin Prison.

In the New Folsom case, a Department of Corrections sting resulted in
the May arrest of veteran Officer Michael Laurin, 54. He was taken
into custody after buying a pound of marijuana from inmates' relatives
who were working undercover for the prison system, authorities said.

Officials seized $19,000 in cash and bank deposits that they said
represented prison drug profits. Laurin's trial is pending in Placer
County Superior Court. He could not be reached for comment.

Two separate investigations at San Quentin put an officer, two cooks
and a parolee with a violent past in custody.

The officer, April Reynolds, in her mid-to-late 20s, was arrested Nov.
22 in Contra Costa County after she bought a gram of heroin with the
intent of smuggling it into San Quentin, according to authorities. At
the time of the bust, she was accompanied by Terry Clay, 27, a
parolee-at-large with convictions for assault with a firearm, and drug
possession and other property crimes, officials said. He was arrested,
too.

An investigation into a San Quentin cook, Sherwood Coleman, 25, led
authorities to Reynolds and Clay. Investigators arrested Coleman the
day after the other two. Coleman's offense: buying an ounce of cocaine
from a Corrections operative, also with the idea of taking it to
prison, authorities said.

Reynolds, Coleman and Clay have been indicted by a Contra Costa County
grand jury, Corrections officials said. None of the three could be
reached for interviews.

Another San Quentin cook, Daniel O'Callaghan, 27, was arrested July
6.

Investigators said he obtained an ounce of methamphetamine from a
parolee in Ukiah, then smuggled half of it into San Quentin. He is set
for a preliminary hearing next week in Napa County. He was not
available for comment.

Office of Internal Affairs investigators described the Ironwood, San
Quentin and New Folsom cases as important busts.

``There is a high price on drugs in prison,'' said Mark Gregson,
senior special agent in charge of the OIA's Northern California
operations. ``A small amount of drugs is not so significant on the
streets, but they become significant in the institution.''

Although investigators believe most drugs get into prison through
inmate visits with friends and relatives, they said the larger
quantities almost always are smuggled in through prison employees,
including sworn officers.

``In instances where there are substantial amounts, it appears to be
more of an employee problem,'' said agent Mansfield.

Officials said that employees who bring drugs into prisons usually
work through one or two inmate contacts. The inmates, then, run their
own distribution networks through the prison.

Robert Johnson, a parolee with a history of drug convictions,
identified himself in an interview with The Sacramento Bee as a former
member of the La Nuestra Familia prison gang whose mob ``job'' at San
Quentin was to cultivate officers and other employees for stash smuggling.

``Check this out,'' Johnson said. ``In prison, you can make a thousand
dollars off a gram of heroin. I used to walk through the institution
with a thousand dollars in my pocket or in my mattress. I would go to
the visiting room and slip it out, or have a guard take it out. That
was my job.''

Johnson said prison employees brought in drugs to him no less than 18
times during his 18 years in various institutions.

Don Novey, president of the California Correctional Peace Officers
Association, said the three cases in the relatively short time frame
is a relatively high number. He characterized officers who smuggle
drugs into prison as ``stupid.''

``Out of 28,000 (sworn correctional officers), you're going to have
five or 10 who are ignorant enough to do something like this,'' Novey
said. ``It all gets back to (the prison system) having better
background investigations and psychological screening (of officers).''
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Be-In About Drugpeace (A press release from the Drug Policy Foundation
publicizes the 11th Annual Digital Be-In tomorrow in San Francisco,
co-sponsored by DPF and developed in conjunction with the Macworld Expo.
The program includes the launching of the Drug Peace Campaign,
an "internet-based political action committee whose mission is to seek
a peaceful end to the 'War on Drugs' by encouraging more intelligent
approaches to drug-related legislation and drug education.")

Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1999 16:02:30 EST
Originator: dpnews@dpf.org
Sender: dpnews@dpf.org
From: "Drug Policy News Service" (dpf-mod@dpf.org)
To: Multiple recipients of list (dpnews@dpf.org)
Subject: Be-In About Drugpeace

The 11th Annual Digital Be-In (www.be-in.com) is being held at the SOMARTS
Gallery in San Francisco tomorrow to launch the Drug Peace Campaign, an
"internet-based political action committee whose mission is to seek a
peaceful end to the 'War on Drugs' by encouraging more intelligent
approaches to drug-related legislation and drug education," according to
coordinating organization Verbum Inc.

Co-sponsored by the Drug Policy Foundation and developed in conjunction with
the Macworld Expo, Be-In participants will discuss a range of issues,
including alternatives to the drug war, coalition building on the internet,
and cultural diversity in cyberspace.

Guest speakers include:

*Mike Gray, author of Drug Crazy
*Jane Piper, founder of the Next School
*Dale Geiringer, California NORML
*Ralph Metzner, professor, California Institute of Integral Studies, and
*Dave Borden, Drug Reform Coordination Network

The Digital Be-In will take place January 9, 1999 from 7 pm to 2 am. Stop by
the SOMARTS Gallery at 929 Brannan Street, San Francisco or check it out on
the web at www.be-in.com.

Whitney A. Taylor
Conference Director

***

The Drug Policy Foundation
"New Ways of Thinking About Drugs Since 1986"

4455 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite B-500
Washington, DC 20008-2328 USA

+1.202.537-5005
Fax: +1.202.537-3007

email: taylor@dpf.org
web: www.dpf.org
-------------------------------------------------------------------

16th Street Shooting Gallery (Another San Francisco Examiner follow-up
on the heroin-related death of Boz Scaggs' son features a somewhat
sensationalized portrait of the Mission District neighborhood where
Oscar Scaggs died. The addicts in the neighborhood have found that
heroin is far more readily available than treatment programs. According
to the San Francisco Department of Public Health, there are about 13,000
heroin "addicts" in The City - but the number of casual users isn't
mentioned. In any case, only 4,000 were getting treatment last year.)

Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1999 10:08:20 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US CA: 16th Street Shooting Gallery
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: Fri, 8 Jan 1999
Source: San Francisco Examiner (CA)
Section: Front Page
Copyright: 1999 San Francisco Examiner
Contact: letters@examiner.com
Website: http://www.examiner.com/
Forum: http://examiner.com/cgi-bin/WebX
Author: Emily Gurnon

16TH STREET SHOOTING GALLERY

As City's Heroin Problem Grows, Inner Mission Corner Is Still Ground Zero

He worked as a barber. He used to be a nurse's aide. And he once had a
family.

Now, the man who calls himself Heavy is a resident of 16th and Mission
streets, with no home, no job and no regular income. His three
children live with his mother; he sees them three or four times a year.

The one thing he does have, the thing that sticks with him like gum on
the bottom of his shoe, is his 20-year heroin habit. He has tried to
beat it, but the withdrawal is excruciating.

"To kill that pain, you gotta put more drugs in you," Heavy
said.

The 39-year-old is just one of many heroin addicts in this area of
town - an area described by neighborhood organizers as the center of
The City's heroin trade.

It is the place where hundreds come to buy their dope, activists and
police said. They come from Haight-Ashbury and Pacific Heights, from
Oakland and Petaluma. But unlike Oscar Scaggs, the son of singer Boz
Scaggs who died of an apparent heroin overdose there on New Year's
Eve, they go mostly unnoticed by the media.

"It's tragic what happened to Boz Scaggs' son, but it happens all the
time," said Richard Marquez of the Mission Agenda, a nonprofit agency
that works with poor people living on the streets and in the Mission's
56 residential hotels.

He pointed to the public toilet near the corner, the "green monster,"
as people here call it. "It's sort of a shooting gallery," a place
where addicts go to inject themselves with heroin, he said. "It's
cheaper than a hotel room."

Police say the area is certainly one of the three or four worst in The
City for heroin dealing.

"Historically, 16th and Mission has always been it," said Inspector
Bob Hernandez of the police narcotics division. "That's always been
the spot."

One addict who gets his supply there is a third-generation buyer; his
father and grandfather also frequented the corner, Hernandez said.

Since the 1970s, when the intersection became the site of a BART stop,
its popularity has grown.

Good prices in City

"Anyone from anywhere can come in, get off the train, get their drugs
and get back on," said Sgt. John Murphy of the narcotics division.
According to Hernandez, they make the trip to San Francisco because
they know they can get a good price for the drug here.

Moving west, toward Valencia Street, the hard-core elements of Mission
Street give way to the hipster clubs and trendy restaurants that have
made Valencia one of the hot new places for 20-somethings.

Marquez pointed to a bar on 16th Street, the Skylark, between Mission
and Valencia. It used to be a trans-gender gay Latino bar called La
India Bonita, he said. "Now it's a total yuppie site."

The contradictions are stark.

Marquez peered into the window of a popular restaurant on 16th and
Valencia called Ti Couz. "Yupsters are lining up here on Friday night
to eat crepes, and across the street, people in those (single-room
occupancy) hotels are shooting up," he said.

But the two groups have one thing in common: The young partiers often
stop on the corner to score some heroin while they're in the
neighborhood, Marquez said. Since the drug is increasingly snorted or
smoked, some of its formerly forbidden nature is gone.

A man who gave his name as Semaj, a heroin addict himself, said he
makes a little money by setting up customers with drug dealers.

"You can tell the customers that don't belong in the neighborhood.
They just look different," he said. He's seen doctors, lawyers, even
morticians come around for their heroin fix. "I even had a guy from
the funeral home, he come over here with a body in the car once."

Police agreed, saying that people from all walks of life and all
incomes frequent the area. Murphy said he recently arrested a Stanford
professor on suspicion of heroin possession.

The addicts who live in the neighborhood have found that drugs are far
more readily available than treatment programs.

According to the San Francisco Department of Public Health, there are
about 13,000 heroin addicts in The City. Only 4,000 were getting
treatment last year, said Barbara Garcia, director of community
substance abuse services.

Treatment centers scarce

There are currently no treatment centers near 16th and Mission; the
closest one is at San Francisco General Hospital at 22nd Street and
Potrero Avenue, Garcia said. The department has funded a new
residential treatment program scheduled to open nearby in about a
year, but it will have only six beds.

Citywide, addicts must wait anywhere from three to six weeks and even
longer before they can get into a treatment program, Garcia said.

Hernandez, the narcotics officer, said he is working on a new program,
funded by the federal government, that aims to reduce the number of
overdose deaths and help people take advantage of the available
treatment options.

The addict who gave his name as Heavy said he would like to get
treatment - especially since he also struggles with diabetes. While he
stands on the corner talking to a reporter, a young man sidles up to
him.

"Thirty dollars," the young man says, opening his palm to reveal a
ripped plastic Baggie with a brown rock the size of a large raisin.
It's half a gram of Mexican heroin. "Thirty dollars."

Heavy declines, saying he doesn't have the money right now. The young
man moves on.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Young, Rich And Strung Out (The San Francisco Chronicle uses the occasion
of Oscar Scaggs' heroin-related death to assert that heroin use is
increasing, and ludicrously but sensationally asserts it is emerging as the
"drug of choice" for the Bay Area's well-off kids. Anyone wondering how
non-lethal street doses of heroin can be so toxic should note
in San Francisco, it's sometimes cut with shoe polish.)

Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1999 17:53:18 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US CA: Young, Rich And Strung Out
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)
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Contact: chronletters@sfgate.com
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Forum: http://www.sfgate.com/conferences/
Copyright: 1999 San Francisco Chronicle
Pubdate: Fri, 8 Jan 1999
Page: A1 - Front Page
Authors: Kevin Fagan, Neva Chonin, Chronicle Staff Writers

YOUNG, RICH AND STRUNG OUT

Heroin Emerging As Drug Of Choice For Bay Area's Well-Off Kids

Oscar Scaggs may not have known it, but he rode a cresting, ugly new wave
right to his death when he overdosed in a down-and-outer hotel on New
Year's Eve.

The wave is heroin addiction -- a familiar horror come back.

Just when most experts had written the drug off as hitting a downswing, the
old granddad of narcotics known as dope, chiva and smack that has so
infamously ravaged junkies off and on for decades is on the rise. Again.

This time the drug is reaching its anesthetizing fingers deeper than ever
into the ranks of the young, middle- and upper-middle class -- kids like
the 21-year-old son of blues rocker Boz Scaggs, ones from wealthy city
districts and suburbs who have the world at their fingertips and snort,
smoke or inject it away.

This isn't the ``heroin chic'' that gripped hollow-eyed celebrities in the
mid- 1990s, killing the likes of actor River Phoenix and grunge rocker
Stefanie Sargent with overdoses. That wave was on its way out even as
President Clinton denounced it in May 1997, replaced by an upsurge in the
abuse of methamphetamine, or speed.

In the depressingly predictable way of the drug world, this wave is the
inevitable answer to the speed epidemic, experts say -- inevitable because
epidemics of stimulant ``upper'' drugs are always followed by epidemics of
depressant ``downer'' drugs.

The main difference with this latest heroin wave is that the smack on the
street these days has become so incredibly potent that users don't have to
inject it, as they do low-grade heroin. This has put a richer cut of kid
into the drug's mangy grasp.

Being able to smoke it or inhale it straight out of a bag means youths can
use heroin and still pass through their privileged worlds without tell-tale
needle ``tracks'' on their arms to give them away. At least for a while,
that is -- most, if they become hard-core junkies, eventually turn to
syringes.

Adding to the allure is the fact that heroin has become so cheap -- $5 a
hit, down from $100 in the early 1990s -- that it now costs about as much
to get high on smack for six hours as it does to buy a six-pack of beer.
Heroin that would have been about 5 percent pure a few years ago is now 60
to 80 percent pure.

Most kids-of-privilege users are in their early 20s, medical and law
enforcement officials say, but a very small and growing percentage, less
than 2 percent nationwide, are between the ages of 12 and 18.

The kids come from anywhere money is not a problem, from Pacific Heights in
San Francisco to the better-heeled pockets of suburban Marin, Contra Costa,
San Mateo and Alameda counties. They are all drawn, though, to one place.

San Francisco, the epicenter of the epidemic, is where most young suburban
users come to get their dope. With the invulnerability of youth throbbing
inside them, they don't know what they're getting into.

``We treat them younger and higher-income all the time, and it's getting
worse,'' said Dr. David Smith, founder and medical director of the
Haight-Ashbury Free Clinics in San Francisco. ``Because they can smoke it
or inhale it now, they think they can't get addicted and won't get noticed,
but they're very wrong.

``It's a killer, no matter how you do it. And it's now an epidemic.''

Oscar Scaggs, with the cachet of having the last name of one of San
Francisco's most famous musicians, wasn't a typical rich kid. But those who
knew him well say his death is emblematic of what's happening to lots of
kids of privilege -- celebrity or not.

``There's this myth among parents that it's as simple as saying good people
don't do drugs and bad people do. Well, Oscar was the kindest, sweetest
person I'd ever met in my life,'' said Maura Lynch, 21, a close friend.
''And right now I can list 10 other people I know in this city between the
ages of 19 to 25 who are involved with heroin, too. That's the drug's age
group now: It's the upper-class kids just out of high school who are doing
it.''

Oscar Scaggs was emotionally devastated when his lifelong friend, Nick
Traina, author Danielle Steel's manic-depressive son, died of a drug
overdose in 1997 at age 19. But it wasn't enough to ward him off his own
dope craving.

``We went to Nick's funeral together, and I remember him telling me how
stupid it was, the way he died,'' Lynch said. ``He said horrible things
about the drug and how he hated junkies.''

Scaggs went into a rehabilitation program last January and seemed to be
staying clean nearly up to the time of his death, friends and police said.
Exactly why and how he wound up dead in the tatty Royan Hotel remains cloudy.

``I knew he was going to the (Royan) hotel to look for a friend who was a
junkie,'' said Lynch. ``Her parents had asked for help, and he was checking
with his dealers to try to find her. I guess that's how he got back in
touch with them after being clean.''

Dawn Holliday, who books Boz Scaggs' San Francisco nightclub Slim's, where
Oscar worked as a sound technician, knows the suburban heroin explosion
with painful intimacy.

Holliday's younger brother, Norman, lived in Marin and overdosed on heroin
at the 16th and Mission BART Station several years ago. He was resuscitated
after a passer-by noticed him turning blue and called 911. Norman moved to
upstate New York, telling his sister he couldn't get clean in San Francisco.

``He said he couldn't even take a bus from SFO to Sausalito without
copping,'' Holliday said. ``His friends were rich, white Marin deadheads.
They started smoking it, then shooting it. It got to the point where he
told me he wouldn't be surprised if half of Marin County woke up one
morning with a heroin habit.''

The National Drug Control Policy Office reports that the number of heroin
addicts nationwide has shot up from 500,000 in 1991 to 810,000 today --
more than 200,000 of that total being added in the past year alone. And
just in California, heroin seizures by the state Bureau of Narcotic
Enforcement went from just 87 pounds in 1995, the height of the ``heroin
chic'' period, to 148 pounds last year. Police say the figure only reflects
a fraction of what is really out there.

Perhaps most sobering of all, San Francisco has the highest rate of
heroin-related deaths of any city in the state: One every three days,
double the rate of the early '90s, and far more than from any other drug.

However, tracing heroin's specific injection into the lives of the rich or
even the merely comfortable is much harder. Those with enough money tend to
take their kids to private doctors when they overdose, keeping them off the
public medical records.

But the trend is standing out like neon among those who must deal with it,
like Smith -- who helped Scaggs, and whose wife was Scaggs' chief drug
counselor.

``The drug culture is like the tobacco industry,'' said Smith, who attended
a private memorial service for Scaggs on Tuesday night at Slim's. ``They
market to youth, and to where they can get the money. They don't care who
they destroy.''

Wave or no wave, it's not like heroin ever really went away.

The first big heroin epidemic swept San Francisco in the late 1960s and
early '70s, and others have ebbed and flowed like a dirty tide ever since,
with a hard core of steady users remaining no matter what. Even when the
``chic'' trend died down, celebrities kept right on using and dying.

The chic phenomenon itself was actually a follow-up wave to an earlier
infusion of heroin into San Francisco's and other urban populations of
indigent street kids in the late 1980s. So the epidemic now reaching into
the middle and upper-classes is the third wallop of smack in the past decade.

``Mary,'' a 22-year-old San Franciscan from a privileged home who was
hooked on heroin and got clean more than a year ago, said the drug's
come-on draw for the just-out-of-high school crowd is purely recreational.

``It's not so much a party crowd thing, because when you're high on dope
the last thing you want to do is dance,'' said Mary, who spoke on condition
of anonymity. ``You start out just experimenting with your friends, you
know, as something different from pot or acid, and then it just gets ahold
of you before you know it.''

Another part of the appeal is purely generational. In a world of aging baby
boomers, upscale potheads and ex-hippie acid casualties, heroin is
emblematic of a younger generation, as intricately linked to its music and
fashion scene as an iron-on Marijuana leaf patch was to that of its
parents. It may be the most dangerous drug, but at least it's theirs --
which isn't really accurate, but that's the thinking.

Dave Kaplan, who runs the Easy Action music booking agency in San
Francisco's Mission District, figures that heroin's fashion rating has
little bearing on what happens on the street.

``All I know is that whenever I walk down 16th Street it looks like a scene
out of `Night of the Living Dead,' '' he said. ``If anything, the Mission
corridor has gotten worse. People outgrow drugs like acid, but it's hard to
get over being strung out on heroin.''

Parts of the Mission and Haight- Ashbury districts serve as the city's
principal dope supermarkets. Dealers use addicts as their front men,
sending them to the sidewalks with batches of smack to sell and paying them
off with hits for themselves.

While police and doctors are scrambling to stem the addiction wave and
handle the overdoses, drug pushers gleefully say times have never been better.

``Orinda, Marin, the Marina -- you name it, we get 'em,'' said one drug
dealer at 16th and Mission who spoke on condition of anonymity. ``Just in
the last year or so, it seems like every other buyer, or more, who comes
here is some rich white kid.''

This is where Scaggs at times came to get his dope; the hotel where he died
is just two blocks away. Dealers and junkies alike are easy to pick out on
the sidewalk -- for those who are looking, at least -- as they troll for
each other from midday deep into the night, avoiding the frequent police
patrols.

``The kids start out on pot, acid, stuff like that, in the Haight, and when
they want the chiva they come here,'' said the dealer. The big thing for
sale right now is a ``one on one,'' also called a speedball, a tiny
combination bag of heroin and cocaine that goes for about $10 and is good
for one or two highs.
``You sell them for $15 to the rich kids, telling them they're getting the
coke for free, until they start using heavy and finally figure out they're
paying too much,'' the dealer said with a laugh. ``Some people also cut the
stuff with shoe polish or powdered sugar, and the kids never know the
difference.''

Asked why heroin would boom among the comfy set, he shrugged. ``I guess
because chiva's cheaper than just about anything else right now,'' he said.
''It doesn't make no difference if you're a millionaire -- everyone wants
to spend $1 to get $10 worth of something.

``And if there's anyone who knows a bargain, it's rich people.''
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Colo. Court Upholds Plea Bargains (The Associated Press
says the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday reversed the Singleton
decision issued last summer by a three-judge panel from the same court.
An unspecified majority affirmed that it is legal to offer something of value
in exchange for testimony, as long as it's a prosecutor offering leniency
to one defendant for testimony against another defendant. The judges
affirmed the conviction in Kansas of Sonya Singleton on charges of cocaine
trafficking and money laundering. The ruling said if Congress had intended
to overturn the accepted practice, "it would have done so in clear,
unmistakable and unarguable language.")

Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1999 21:36:47 -0800 (PST)
To: "DRCTalk Reformers' Forum" (drctalk@drcnet.org)
From: hadorn@dnai.com (David Hadorn)
Subject: 'Singleton' falls
Reply-To: drctalk@drcnet.org
Sender: owner-drctalk@drcnet.org

Nothing said here about an appeal to the Supremes, but almost certainly this
will happen. Guess what the result will be?
D

***

Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: 8 Jan 1999
Source: Associated Press
Copyright: 1999 Associated Press.
Author: Steven K. Paulson Associated Press Writer

COLO. COURT UPHOLDS PLEA BARGAINS

DENVER (AP) An appeals court ruled Friday that prosecutors can offer plea
bargains in exchange for testimony, overturning a court decision that
declared the practice illegal.

The decision last summer by a three-member panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals had shocked the Justice Department. That ruling took issue
with the moral and legal underpinning of immunity deals which critics
describe as a form of bribery and essentially would make criminals of
federal prosecutors who offer them.

The ruling was put on hold until the full Denver-based appeals court could
decide. In its majority opinion Friday, a 12-member panel wrote that if
Congress had intended to overturn the accepted practice, "it would have
done so in clear, unmistakable and unarguable language."

The reversal pleased Justice Department officials.

"It's a great day for federal prosecutors across this nation," said Linda
McMahan, U.S. attorney for Colorado.

The three judges who made the earlier ruling also sat on the 12-member
panel and dissented in Friday's reversal.

The case centered on the Kansas conviction of Sonya Singleton on charges of
cocaine trafficking and money laundering. The three judges said the chief
prosecution witness illegally received leniency in exchange for his
testimony, violating federal law against bribery witnesses.

"If justice is perverted when a criminal defendant seeks to buy testimony
from a witness, it is no less perverted when the government does so," said
Judge Paul J. Kelley Jr.

The Justice Department said the practice is common, noting that Timothy
McVeigh and Terry Nichols were convicted in the Oklahoma City bombing based
on testimony from a former friend who struck a deal.

The three judges had ordered a new trial for Singleton and said Congress
should rewrite anti-bribery laws if legislators believe prosecutors should
be exempt.

Lawyers scrambled to delay other cases affected by the ruling, but most did
not expect it to stand. If the full 10th Circuit court did not overturn it,
they said Congress would likely amend the law.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

US Court Upholds Plea Bargaining (A different Associated Press version)

Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1999 10:58:49 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: WIRE: US Court Upholds Plea Bargaining
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: Fri, 8 Jan 1999
Source: Associated Press
Copyright: 1999 Associated Press.
Author: Steven K. Paulson

U.S. COURT UPHOLDS PLEA BARGAINING

DENVER (AP) In a decision prosecutors describe as vital for criminal
justice in America, a federal appeals court has ruled that plea
bargains can be offered in exchange for testimony, reversing a
decision that had declared the practice illegal.

The full 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that immunity
deals and lesser sentences offered for the testimony of witnesses did
not violate federal laws against bribery.

"It's a great day for federal prosecutors across this nation," said
Linda McMahan, U.S. Attorney for Colorado. "We are delighted with the
10th Circuit's opinion ... prosecutors are not violating the law or
acting unethically when they engage in such a practice."

Last summer, a three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit shocked the
Justice Department when it declared plea-bargained testimony to be
illegal.

Prosecutors believe deals offering leniency to witnesses who testify
in criminal cases are essential in bringing down organized crime
leaders, drug lords and other high-profile criminals.

Defense lawyers contend the deals are tantamount to buying testimony
and argue that there are other ways witnesses can help
prosecutors.

The panel's ruling was put on hold until the full Denver-based appeals
court could review the issue.

In its opinion Friday, the majority wrote that Congress has long known
of the widespread practice. Had Congress intended to forbid such plea
bargains, the court reasoned, "it would have done so in clear,
unmistakable and unarguable language."

The three judges who made the earlier ruling dissented from Friday's
majority ruling.

"Since the (three-judge) panel issued its opinion in this case,
prosecutors from coast to coast have attempted to portray it as the
death knell for the criminal justice system as we know it.

"But experience has proven that the government, just like the private
citizens it regulates and prosecutes, can live within the rules,"
wrote judge Paul J. Kelly Jr. in his dissent.

The case centered on the Kansas conviction of Sonya Singleton on
charges of cocaine trafficking and money laundering. The three judges
said the chief prosecution witness illegally received leniency in
exchange for his testimony, violating the law against bribing witnesses.

In his original ruling, Kelly said prosecutors had to abide by the
same rules that apply to others.

"If justice is perverted when a criminal defendant seeks to buy
testimony from a witness, it is no less perverted when the government
does so," he wrote.

The Justice Department said the practice was common, noting that
Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were convicted in the Oklahoma City
bombing based on testimony from a former friend who struck a deal.

The three judges had ordered a new trial for Singleton and said
Congress should rewrite anti-bribery laws if legislators believe
prosecutors should be exempt.

Lawyers scrambled to delay other cases affected by the ruling, but
most did not expect it to stand. If the full 10th Circuit did not
overturn it, they said Congress would likely have amended the law.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

U.S. v. Singleton - 01/08/1999 (A list subscriber posts a URL leading to
a copy of today's ruling by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.)

Date: Sat, 09 Jan 1999 21:57:13 -0600
To: "DRCTalk Reformers' Forum" (drctalk@drcnet.org)
From: "Carl E. Olsen" (carl@commonlink.net)
Subject: 97-3178 -- U.S. v. Singleton -- 01/08/1999
Sender: owner-drctalk@drcnet.org

Click below,

Comments to: WebMaster, ca10@law.wuacc.edu.

Updated: January 9, 1999.

HTML markup Copyright (c) 1999, Washburn University School of Law.

URL: http://lawlib.wuacc.edu/ca10/cases/1999/01/97-3178.htm.

Sincerely,
Carl Olsen
-------------------------------------------------------------------

545 Pounds Of Marijuana Found, 3 Arrested In Stash-House Raid
(The Arizona Daily Star says the investigation started with a tip.
Tucson residents who suspect there may be a stash house in their neighborhood
should call 88-CRIME or MANTIS at 547-8800. Pima County sheriff's Sgt.
Paul Leonardi, who is assigned to the Metropolitan Area Narcotics Trafficking
and Interdiction Squad, said he wasn't surprised about finding an apparent
stash house in a quiet, middle-class neighborhood. "We've been in the
Foothills - east, west, north. . . . It's all over town.")

Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1999 21:00:13 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US AZ: 545 Pounds Of Marijuana Found, 3 Arrested In
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)
Source: Arizona Daily Star (AZ)
Contact: letters@azstarnet.com
Website: http://www.azstarnet.com/
Pubdate: 8 Jan 1999
Author: Inger Sandal The Arizona Daily Star

545 POUNDS OF MARIJUANA FOUND, 3 ARRESTED IN STASH-HOUSE RAID

It was a nondescript stucco home in a typical middle-class subdivision
northwest of Tucson. In its garage - a blue Astro van with a ``Bush/Quayle
'92'' bumper sticker.

But, authorities allege, appearances can be deceiving.

Investigators served a search warrant on the home Wednesday afternoon and
seized 545 pounds of marijuana and $109,533 in cash.

``All indications are this was a large-scale stash house,'' said Pima
County sheriff's Sgt. Paul Leonardi, who is assigned to the Metropolitan
Area Narcotics Trafficking and Interdiction Squad.

Investigators also found ledgers that showed thousands of pounds of
marijuana could have moved through the home each week, he said.

Authorities arrested the homeowner, Sergio Alberto Bayliss-Lopez, 26, of
Caborca, Mexico, and two other men - brothers Filiberto Chaidez-Sanchez,
18, and Neker Ivan Chaidez-Sanchez, 21, of Sinaloa, Mexico - on suspicion
of unlawful possession of marijuana for sale.

Each remained jailed last night in lieu of $5,500 bond.

The narcotics investigation was ongoing and started with a tip.

Bayliss-Lopez bought the home in October and apparently lived there by
himself, although detectives found a baby crib and a package of diapers,
Leonardi said.

``It blended in with the neighborhood,'' Leonardi said of the sparsely
furnished home. ``They had a Christmas tree and Christmas lights,'' he
said, describing the Christmas tree as upscale, with fancy ribbon as
garland and crystal balls with gold inlay trim.

``The living quarters were cordoned off so they had an assembly line'' for
packaging, weighing and repackaging marijuana, he said.

He said he wasn't surprised about finding an apparent stash house in a
quiet, middle-class neighborhood. ``We've been in the Foothills - east,
west, north. . . . It's all over town,'' he said.

Residents who suspect there may be a stash house in their neighborhood
should call 88-CRIME or MANTIS at 547-8800.

Visit the Pima County Sheriff's office online. http://biz.rtd.com/pcsd/
-------------------------------------------------------------------

46 Police Shells Found At Drug Bust Scene (According to the Houston
Chronicle, police in Pasadena, Texas, say the two men they killed were trying
to buy cocaine. But one of the two men killed, Keithen Briscoe, was a
criminal justice major at Prairie View A&M University and the other,
Empra TaDar Moore, was a December criminal justice graduate. Robert Moore,
19, a passenger in his brother's car who was shot in the shoulder, said "They
killed my brother for no reason," adding that his brother was not involved
in drugs.)

Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1999 21:00:17 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US TX: 46 Police Shells Found At Drug Bust Scene
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Art Smart
Pubdate: 8 Jan 1999
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Contact: viewpoints@chron.com
Website: http://www.chron.com/
Forum: http://www.chron.com/content/hcitalk/index.html
Copyright: 1999 Houston Chronicle
Author: Ruth Rendon
Section: pp. 22A and 23A, 3-star edition

46 POLICE SHELLS FOUND AT DRUG BUST SCENE

Suspects may not have fired any shots

Six Pasadena police officers fired 46 times during an attempted drug bust
in which two men were killed and another wounded, police said Thursday.

One of the two men killed was a criminal justice major at Prairie View A&M
University and the other a December criminal justice graduate.

"Our crime scene people have been able to recover 46 shell casings,"
Pasadena police spokesman Sgt. J.M. Baird said. "We believe all of those
shell casings came from police weapons. At this point we do know that six
officers were involved in engaging their firearms at the suspects."

One of the men killed by officers -- Keithen Briscoe, 24, of 2814
Dragonwick in Houston -- had a .32-caliber pistol in his waistband, Baird
said. Tests are being done to determine if the weapon had been fired, he said.

An autopsy by the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office found that
Briscoe suffered four gunshot wounds, and the one in his left shoulder and
chest were fatal. He died Wednesday at Memorial Hospital-Southmore in
Pasadena.

The other man killed by officers was identified as Empra TaDar Moore, 23,
of 17103 Clay Road in Houston. Moore, who graduated from Prairie View and
was beginning a master's program, was shot seven times, with the wound to
the lower left armpit being fatal, Baird said. He died Wednesday at Ben
Taub Hospital.

Robert Moore, 19, a passenger in his brother Empra's car, was shot in the
shoulder and treated at Ben Taub Hospital.

Police say that about 2 p.m. Wednesday officers were trying to sell a large
quantity of cocaine when officers tried to arrest the men in the parking
lot of Sunny's Food Store at 204 S. Richey near Texas 225.

Baird said an undercover officer got into a Ford Escort driven by Briscoe,
who showed him $56,000 in cash for the cocaine. The officer then got out of
the car and gave a signal to other officers.

As the other officers began to surround Briscoe's car and a 1996 Chevrolet
Tahoe driven by Empra Moore, the two began to drive in reverse.

Briscoe's car struck an officer, throwing him over the car and in front of
the vehicle, Baird said. Briscoe then ran over the officer, he said.

"At that point is when officers began to engage in fire," Baird said.

Police said there are tire marks on the leg of the pants worn by the
undercover officer. He was taken to Columbia Bayshore Medical Center, where
he was treated for a bruised kidney and cuts and bruises to his face, then
released.

Baird said Moore also put his car in reverse, did a semicircle and struck
an undercover officer in the shoulder with the back of the car. The officer
suffered minor injuries.

Moore, with his brother as a passenger, tried to flee but got only a block
before ramming into the back of a truck. The Tahoe's back window was shot
out and the front windshield also was struck.

Speaking from his Houston home, Robert Moore said someone was trying to
barricade his brother in the parking lot when Empra Moore tried to leave.

"We didn't know who they were. They didn't acknowledge themselves as
police. We panicked. My brother put it in reverse and took off. They said
he ran over a cop, which is unbelievable because he didn't. I heard a
crash, but it wasn't a body," said Moore, 19, who is planning to enter
Prairie View A&M.

Moore said he heard several shots as they tried to leave.

"I didn't know what had happened," he said. "I told my brother that I was
scared. I looked up and saw police cars behind us, and I looked at my
brother and he was dead."

Robert Moore said he and his brother dropped off his son and the child's
mother at the airport. He said he thought they were going home, but his
brother drove to Pasadena instead. He said he didn't question his brother,
who was to start graduate work in criminal justice at Texas Southern
University this month, about where they were going.

"They killed my brother for no reason. We ran but you're not supposed to
get shot for running from police," he said.

Moore, who graduated from high school in Reno, Nev., said Briscoe and his
brother were friends from Prairie View. He said his brother was not
involved in drugs.

As police continued their investigation, authorities were searching for two
Hispanic men who fled in a red Lincoln Town Car.

Charlie Jones, a cousin of Briscoe, said the shooting was excessive and
possibly unjustified.

"At certain times police have the right to do certain things and sometimes
not," he said.

"What was going on out there? Something had to be going on with so many
police officers out there. Anybody could have been shot," said Jones, 35,
who is visiting Houston from Detroit. "One thing for sure is that there
were nine police officers involved. We need to find out what their roles
were."

Jones and other family members said they did not know what Briscoe was
doing in Pasadena and that he had no run-ins with the law. They said the
Escort was not his car and that they did not know the Moore brothers.

Other members of the Moore family declined comment.

Baird said the officers were surprised that three cars and five suspects
showed up for the buy.

"We expected a car and a suspect with the money," he said.

Police recovered $56,000 in cash from Briscoe's car. Earlier, police had
said there was $100,000 in the car. No weapon or cash was recovered from
Moore's car, Baird said.

No charges have been filed against Robert Moore.

The six officers who fired -- five undercover narcotics officers and one
narcotics supervisor -- were placed on a mandatory three-day administrative
leave and will undergo counseling. They also will have to requalify with
their firearms at the police range, Baird said.

Another narcotics supervisor and two uniformed officers also were part of
the sting operation but did not fire their weapons.

Baird said investigators have interviewed 15 witnesses and the nine
officers. Anyone witnessing the shooting that has not been contacted by
investigators is asked to call the police department at 713-477-1221.

***

[This article also appeared in a different edition of the same newspaper
with the headline, "Pasadena Cops Fired 46 Shots During Attempted Drug
Bust" - ed.]
-------------------------------------------------------------------

A Jury's Duty (The Fort Worth Star-Telegram says the Lone Star Fully Informed
Jury Association plans to take four proposals to the state legislature
this year. One proposal would prohibit asking potential jurors their views
on religion, politics or the law being prosecuted. Another proposal
would prevent prosecutors from excusing potential jurors because they
disagreed with the law relevant to a case. What has sparked the most dissent
is the group's assertion that jurors should vote with their conscience
instead of the law and the evidence. "Americans at the end of World War II
told German citizens that they should have followed their conscience instead
of their government," says Tom Glass. "Today's courtroom system tells jurors
the exact opposite. You have to do whatever the law tells you to do.")
Link to earlier story
Date: Sat, 09 Jan 1999 18:05:26 +0000 To: vignes@monaco.mc From: Peter Webster (vignes@monaco.mc) Subject: A Jury's Duty 1-8-99 Ft. Worth Star-Telegram http://www.startelegram.com letters@star-telegram.com A jury's duty By Susan Gill Vardon Star-Telegram Staff Writer When Denton attorney Rick Hagen took the case of a woman who faced jail because she declined to answer questions on a jury questionnaire, he never expected it would become a rallying cry for juror rights proponents. In March 1994, a Denton County district judge sentenced Dianna Brandborg to three days in jail for her refusal to answer questions that she said were personal and violated her constitutional right to privacy. Brandborg appealed, and in June 1995, a U.S. magistrate set aside the contempt order. "In that case, I don't think a lot of lawyers understood what we were trying to do," Hagen said. "They thought we were doing away with their ability to ask questions. All we were advocating was respecting a person's right to privacy and if the question is not relevant, the juror should not have to answer that question." Brandborg's battle for privacy sparked one of four proposals that the Lone Star Fully Informed Jury Association, a Texas juror rights group, plans to take to the Legislature this year. Group members espouse jury nullification, the belief that jurors should decide cases based on their moral convictions instead of the law. The group's proposals include a ban on asking potential jurors their views on religion, politics or the law being prosecuted, said Tom Glass, president of the Texas association, which is part of a national group based in Montana. Another proposal would prevent prosecutors from excusing potential jurors because they disagree with a law relevant to a case, Glass said. The group's agenda -- legislative and otherwise -- has come under widespread criticism, particularly from prosecutors and judges. The idea of forbidding prosecutors from questioning jurors on certain issues would be "disastrous," said Roger Jones, chief of the felony trial division in the Denton County district attorney's office. "You have to have people on a jury that support the law that is in question in that trial. Otherwise, you are saying a jury is legislating instead of applying the law," Jones said. But what has sparked the most dissent is the group's assertion that jurors should vote with their conscience instead of the law and the evidence. For example, group members argue that a juror who believes that assisted suicide is morally correct should feel free to acquit Dr. Jack Kevorkian. "Americans at the end of World War II told German citizens that they should have followed their conscience instead of their government," said Glass, a Houston systems analyst. "Today's courtroom system tells jurors the exact opposite. You have to do whatever the law tells you to do." Critics argue that, taken to its extreme, jury nullification would render the law meaningless. The way to change unpopular laws is the ballot box, not the jury box, said Fort Worth state District Judge Bob McGrath. "The concept of giving the public more input into the laws is not a bad thing," McGrath said. "However, the way to accomplish that would be through initiative and referendum where the voters would have the right to make laws or nullify laws." It would be unfair, he said, for one person on a jury to use his or her beliefs to prevent a conviction. "Take drug possession as an example," McGrath said. "If you had one person on the jury who felt marijuana should be legal, they could prevent a conviction on something that society has determined by majority vote should be regulated." Juries already have the power to make a statement, he said. A jury might rule that a defendant broke the law but give him or her probation instead of jail time, McGrath said. Or a jury might decide that a party in a civil case was liable for another's injury but levy only a small fine. Hagen, who has lectured to group members on how to use "creative" legal strategies to defend clients, said he also has problems with jury nullification. "Right now, I'm not an advocate for pure nullification," Hagen said. "My concern is that nullification could be a two-way street. I'm more concerned about a jury finding someone guilty on proof less than a reasonable doubt. I think that happens with a great deal of frequency." Glass acknowledged that jury nullification could work in more than one way, but he said it is still worthwhile. "All institutions of freedom can be misused," he said. "That doesn't mean you get rid of them." *** From: Canarchism@aol.com Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1999 10:19:08 EST To: "DRCTalk Reformers' Forum" (drctalk@drcnet.org) Subject: Re: ART: A jury's duty [FIJA] Sender: owner-drctalk@drcnet.org In a message dated 08/01/99 14:47:53 GMT, you write: >"Take drug possession as an example," McGrath said. "If you had one >person on the jury who felt marijuana should be legal, they could >prevent a conviction on something that society has determined by >majority vote should be regulated." Can anyone confirm this as a genuine quote? And if so, can someone tell me when the "majority vote" took place? I must have slept through that period... Harry
-------------------------------------------------------------------

State Rep. Jim Lendall Introduces Medical Bill (An article from the Arkansas
NORML bimonthly newsletter says the newly elected legislator from Southwest
Little Rock has introduced HB 1043, permitting the medical use of marijuana.
After perusing ballot initiatives passed by six western states, Lendall
modeled his bill mainly after the Washington state initiative. Plus
commentary on the medical potential of industrial hemp by Portland NORML's
webmaster.)

From: Santor (santor@conwaycorp.net)
To: pdxnorml@pdxnorml.org
Date: Fri, 08 Jan 1999 16:43:03 -0500
Subject: Arkansas Medical Marijuana Bill

The following article is reprinted from "Arkansas NORML", a bi-monthley
newsletter of Arkansas NORML, an affiliate of NORML http://www.norml.org.
Issue #67, January 99'.

***

State Rep. Jim Lendall Introduces Medical Bill

Newly elected state representative Jim Lendall of Southwest Little Rock has
hit the ground running for the 1999 session. Before New Year's day he had
introduced 27 bills for consideration, nearly half of the 56 bills placed in
the hopper by that date. Among these are HB 1043, a bill that permits the
medical use of marijuana by patients who can derive some benefits from its
use.

The "Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act" is a 14 page act that is modeled mainly
after the Washington state initiative that was passed by voters there last
November. Six western states have now passed madical access acts and Mr.
Lendall perused them all to find the best language and ideas in drafting his
bill.

The bill would permit the possession and use of marijuana by patients who
suffer from debilitating illnesses, including cancer, glaucoma and AIDS. It
would also allow it to be prescribed for symptoms of diseases that produce
pain, nausea or seizures. Patients who receive a prescription for cannabis
from a doctor would apply to the Dept. of Health for an ID card. A primary
caregiver could also be designated with such a card. These patients and
caregivers would also be exempt from prosecution for marijuana contraband
crimes, so long as they possessed less than one ounce of usable marijuana.
They could also grow up to three hemp plants to produce the marijuana they use
as medicine.

***

I do not know who wrote it, but they made a few mistakes. A prescription is
not required. A written recommendation or medical records could be used. And
you can't get usable marijuana from hemp plants, which contains negligable
amounts of the cannabinoids that provide the medical benefits. The bill allows
for 3 mature plants, 4 immature plants and an ounce of usable marijuana for
each mature plant. The bill specifies what constitutes usable marijuana. The
full text of this bill can be found on the internet at

http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/ftproot/bills/1999/htm/hb1043.htm

J Markes
santor@toke.com

***

[ed. note - Although industrial hemp is generally bred to minimize its THC
content, there is no reason to believe that it does not contain some of the
dozens of other cannabinoids with largely unresearched medical potential.
The editor can think of one such use offhand. Want to keep your teen from
getting high on marijuana? Cook hemp leaves and buds into their dinner.
The non-THC cannabinoids will attach to the brain's THC receptors, making
it impossible later that night for psychoactive cannabinoids to fill the same
receptors. Why is Portland NORML sharing this little secret? Because the
editor is tired of reading hemp advocates saying that people who smoke hemp
will only get a headache "because it has such low THC." In fact, one may or
may not get a headache from smoking hemp. But the editor has tried it, and
all it did was fill his THC receptors with cannabinoids that had no
noticeable psychotropic effect. Smoking marijuana shortly thereafter was
similarly ineffective - he had to wait hours for the hemp cannabinoids to
dissipate. It's not the potency of hemp that makes it useless as a
psychotropic. It's the particular cannabinoids that hemp has been bred to
produce. Possibly hemp could be bred with much higher THC content, but with
other cannabinoids that still negated any psychotropic effect. But just
because it doesn't get you "high" doesn't mean it can't have medicinal
benefits. Indeed, the editor is surprised that researchers in Britain who are
trying to separate cannabis' medicinal properties from its intoxicating ones
didn't start by investigating the medicinal potential of cannabinoids from
hemp.]
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Gore Spreads Farm Aid On Visit To Iowa (Reuters says Vice President Al Gore
made his first campaign swing through Iowa Friday, dispensing federal aid
to hog farmers and describing "drug" use as a crisis in rural America. Gore
also attended a town meeting in Des Moines to discuss methamphetamine,
the use of which has skyrocketed in rural areas.)

Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1999 08:56:58 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US IO: Wire: Gore Spreads Farm Aid On Visit To Iowa
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: Fri, 08 Jan 1999
Source: Reuters
Copyright: 1999 Reuters Limited.

GORE SPREADS FARM AID ON VISIT TO IOWA

DES MOINES, Iowa, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Vice President Al Gore spread federal
aid to hog farmers and described drug use as a crisis in rural America on
Friday in what observers characterized as his first campaign swing through
Iowa.

Gore, the early front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in
2000, announced hog farmers will receive $50 million in direct cash payments
with another $80 million to be spent to help eradicate the disease
pseudorabies in hogs and reduce their oversupply.

Farmers are being hurt by the lowest prices for their hogs since the Second
World War.

Gore also attended a town meeting in Des Moines to discuss the illegal drug,
methamphetamine, the use of which has skyrocketed in rural areas.

"I know this is painful for your family to relive this," Gore told a man
whose son committed suicide while under the influence of the drug.

"We have a crisis on hour hands," Gore said. "We need to elevate awareness
because there are still people here in Iowa who do not fully understand the
deadly threat that is posed to these children, to the families of Iowa, to
the social fabric of this state."

Gore's effort to "feel the pain" of potential voters was reminiscent of
President Bill Clinton's very direct and personal style of campaigning.

Gore also flew to Sioux City, in the western end of the state, to discuss
social security with women community leaders.

Iowa is considered politically vital to presidential candidates because it
holds the first-in-the-nation party caucuses early in 2000.

The visit to Iowa was seen locally as the opening of Gore's campaign.

"Hopefully, this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship here in Iowa as
Al Gore looks to 2000," said Phil Roeder, a Polk County official and former
Democratic Party communications director.

"Being the front-runner, he's obviously going to be a target for his
competitors. I don't think he'd want to take anything for granted," Roeder
said.

After dismissing the 1988 Iowa caucuses as geared for the liberal wing of
the party, Gore has since made repeated trips to the state to build ties.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Landlord Admits Plotting To Have Tenants Killed (The Miami Herald
says Alvin Weiss of New York, whom prosecutors have characterized
as "the ultimate slumlord," has pleaded guilty to paying a hit man
to give fatal doses of heroin to two of his tenants in rent-controlled
apartments. The murder plots went awry when the would-be killer
was nailed by police with the heroin.)

Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1999 08:57:09 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US FL: Landlord Admits Plotting To Have Tenants Killed
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: Fri, 08 Jan 1999
Source: Miami Herald (FL)
Contact: heralded@herald.com
Website: http://www.herald.com/
Forum: http://krwebx.infi.net/webxmulti/cgi-bin/WebX?mherald
Copyright: 1999 The Miami Herald

LANDLORD ADMITS PLOTTING TO HAVE TENANTS KILLED

NEW YORK -- (AP) -- A New York landlord has pleaded guilty to hiring a hit
man to kill two of his tenants who had complained about conditions in their
apartments. Alvin Weiss also admitted planning to set fire to one of their
apartments.

In two other separate cases, Weiss also pleaded guilty Wednesday to forging
a will that made him the beneficiary of his insurance broker's $400,000
estate and to tax fraud.

Weiss' tenants were not harmed after the hit man revealed the plot to
police.

Prosecutors portrayed Weiss, 46, as the ultimate slumlord, living in a $2
million home in Brooklyn while denying basic services to tenants in the
nearly 30 buildings that he owns on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Some of
Weiss' tenants, however, defended him after his arrest.

Weiss faces as long as 14 years in prison when he is sentenced Feb. 18 on
the murder plot charges.

He admitted bailing Eduardo Almestica out of jail in the summer of 1997 and
paying him $4,000 to kill Brigette Marx and Burnell Crawford, who lived in
two of his rent-controlled apartments, by giving them fatal doses of heroin.

When a tenant leaves a rent-controlled apartment, the landlord is allowed by
law to raise the rent charged to the next tenant.

The murder plots went awry when Almestica was nailed by police with the
heroin. He revealed the plot and agreed to record a damning conversation
with Weiss after police faked Marx's death.

When Weiss was arrested, police found passports, bank books, securities
statements, tax returns, driver's licenses and credit cards with different
aliases. They also found several guns, boxes of ammunition and $14,000 in
cash.

In a second, separate case before another judge, Weiss admitted that he
perjured himself to cover up a bogus will scam.

Weiss said he and two others were witnesses to the 1994 signing of the will
of Abraham Thau, his insurance broker. Thau actually died in 1995 without
leaving a will, prosecutors said, and the three men created one and filed it
after his death. Weiss' passport and other documents show that he was in
Hungary on the date of the supposed will-signing.

Weiss will be sentenced to one year in that case.

In a third case before a third judge, Weiss pleaded guilty to tax fraud and
agreed to pay almost $700,000 in back taxes, fines and other penalties.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Drug Policy Foundation Action Alert - Gaines and PBS (The Drug Policy
Foundation, in New York, asks you to write a letter to the U.S. Pardon
Attorney and your congressional representatives asking for the release of
Dorothy Gaines, a single mother of three, whose case is to be featured in a
90-minute "Frontline" broadcast Jan. 12 titled "Snitch." Gaines is a
first-time offender sentenced to almost 20 years in prison solely on the
testimony of other defendants who were facing mandatory minimums but who
ended up receiving less time than Gaines because of their statements.)

Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1999 15:25:38 EST
Originator: dpnews@dpf.org
Sender: dpnews@dpf.org
From: "Drug Policy News Service" (dpf-mod@dpf.org)
To: Multiple recipients of list (dpnews@dpf.org)
Subject: DPF Action Alert: Gaines and PBS

Drug Policy Foundation Action Alert

Released: January 8, 1999

Gaines Case Calls Attention to Use of Informing in Criminal Justice System :
PBS/Frontline program to feature Dorothy Gaines, federal prisoner profiled
in Drug Policy Letter

WASHINGTON - On Tuesday, January 12, federal prisoner Dorothy Gaines will
file her final appeal to reverse her conviction and sentencing on charges
that she took part in a drug conspiracy. Ms. Gaines was sentenced to nearly
20 years in federal prison in 1995 based solely on the testimony of
government witnesses who themselves were facing mandatory minimum sentences.

The disturbing story of Ms. Gaines' trial and incarceration is part of a new
Frontline investigation that will air this Tuesday on PBS stations across
the country. The 90-minute program, titled "Snitch," looks into the
increasing use of informants to make cases against alleged drug offenders
(see below).

The Dorothy Gaines Story

In 1993, Ms. Gaines was arrested along with a former boyfriend who used
crack when local and federal police were busting a crack cocaine
distribution ring in Mobile, Ala. In 1994, a federal jury found Ms. Gaines
guilty of two counts of drug conspiracy. Because of the alleged amount of
crack cocaine involved, Ms. Gaines received a 19-year-seven-month sentence
in federal prison.

The problem was that the police did not have the cocaine that Ms. Gaines
supposedly distributed. A search of her house turned up no drugs and no drug
paraphernalia. Ms. Gaines, a single mother with three children, is poor, so
the police did not find any cash or other signs of income that might be
generated by wholesale drug dealing.

What the federal prosecutors did have was the word of other defendants that
Ms. Gaines had kept the ring's leader supplied with crack cocaine. The
government's witnesses, including the leader, were themselves facing lengthy
mandatory minimum sentences, which they sought to reduce by testifying
against people like Ms. Gaines. Furthermore, one of the defendants charged
that the other witnesses were developing their testimony against Ms. Gaines
together while being held in the same cell during the trial.

Because she had no information to trade for a more lenient sentence, Ms.
Gaines, a first-time offender, is now serving a longer sentence than the
defendants who testified against her -- even though some defendants had
prior offenses or were charged with more serious crimes. Dennis Rowe, the
leader of the crack ring, will be released from federal prison in 2004 --
eight years before Ms. Gaines' mandatory sentence expires.

Even if Ms. Gaines were involved in the crack ring and falsely maintained
her innocence, the Drug Policy Foundation opposes her conviction because it
was obtained solely on the basis of testimony by other defendants. The
government did not prove her guilt beyond a reasonable doubt by introducing
corroborating physical evidence of a crime. Instead, the government traded
leniency for testimony, which it could not otherwise verify.

What Can You Do?

Ms. Gaines' legal case is at a critical juncture. The courts, which have
become inured to convictions based on informants' testimony, denied her
first round of appeals. On Tuesday, January 12, Ms. Gaines' public defender
will file a motion for relief on habeas corpus grounds (28 U.S.C. Sec.
2255), which has a slim chance of succeeding.

You can bring attention to this case, especially in light of the airing of
the PBS/Frontline investigation Tuesday evening, by writing to the following
to request that Ms. Gaines be released because the government did not prove
its case. You should begin with the U.S. Pardon Attorney, which already has
a file on Ms. Gaines:

U.S. Pardon Attorney
U.S. Department of Justice
10th St. and Constitution Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20530

Your Representatives in Congress

Contacting your representatives in Congress by writing a letter or calling
is the most effective way to make your views known to them (as opposed to
sending email). If you do not know who your representatives are in the new
106th Congress, you should call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard or visit the
congressional web sites. For the Senate, call (202) 224-3121 or visit
http://www.senate.gov. For the House of Representatives, call (202) 225-3121
or visit http://www.house.gov.

Here are the two addresses you will need for both Senators and your
Representative:

Honorable [name of Senator]
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510-2203

Honorable [name of Representative]
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515-1101

After Tuesday, you can also send letters to the judge who will be trying the
habeas corpus case:

The Honorable Alex T. Howard
U.S. District Court, Southern District of Alabama
113 St. Joseph St.
Mobile, Ala. 36602

You should also send copies of your letters to Ms. Gaines, who loves to
receive mail:

Dorothy M. Gaines
Reg. No. 05609-003
FCI Tallahassee
501 Capital Circle NE
Tallahassee, FL 32301

The original story from the Winter 1998 Drug Policy Letter is online at
http://www.dpf.org and http://www.november.org.

Ms. Gaines is more concerned that her imprisonment has separated her from
her family than with the fact that she believes she has been wrongly
convicted. She cannot support her three children while in prison, where she
makes $5.25 per month. She is the sole living parent for her children and
now has three grandchildren as well.

Watch Frontline on Tuesday for More on Gaines, Informants

The 90-minute program "Snitch" profiles unsettling cases in which minor
offenders are serving long prison sentences on the word of a snitch.

Frontline producer Ofra Bikel said, "The war on drugs and its use of
informants have had devastating consequences on our justice system, the
fabric of our society, and the family. Making informants the only way for
the accused to escape the full force of a sentences is a dangerous idea that
is eroding the individual's rights in the judicial process."

"Snitch" reveals that nearly a third of defendants in federal drug
trafficking cases have had their sentences reduced because they informed on
other people. Some informants end up not serving any time at all.

PBS airdate: Tues., Jan. 12, 1999, 9 P.M., 90 minutes [check local
listings]. More information is online at http://www.pbs.org/frontline. The
Drug Policy Foundation and several other reform organizations provided
substantial information, including Ms. Gaines' story, to Frontline.

Scott Ehlers
Senior Policy Analyst
ehlers@dpf.org

Drug Policy Foundation
"Creating Reasoned and Compassionate Drug Policies"

4455 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite B-500
Washington, DC 20008-2328
ph: (202) 537-5005 * fax: (202) 537-3007
www.dpf.org
www.drugpolicy.org
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Police Chief Orders Probe Into Drug Raid At Birthday (The Vancouver Sun,
in British Columbia, says the police chief in Abbotsford has ordered
an internal investigation into a drug raid at a house where 13 children
were attending a birthday party. As the children watched, a prohibition agent
shot and killed a dog.)

Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1999 17:54:31 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Canada: Police Chief Orders Probe Into Drug Raid At Birthday
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: creator@mapinc.org
Source: Vancouver Sun (Canada)
Contact: sunletters@pacpress.southam.ca
Website: http://www.vancouversun.com/
Copyright: The Vancouver Sun 1999
Pubdate: Friday, 8 January 1999
Author: Lindsay Kines, Vancouver Sun

POLICE CHIEF ORDERS PROBE INTO DRUG RAID AT BIRTHDAY PARTY

The chief of Abbotsford police has ordered an internal investigation into a
drug raid at a house where 13 children were attending a birthday party.

As the children watched, a police emergency response team member shot and
killed a dog that attacked one of the officers.

The raid occurred about 5 p.m. Sunday at a house in the 2300-block of
Centre Street in Abbotsford. A male resident of the house has been charged
with drug offences, including possession of marijuana for the purpose of
trafficking.

In addition, Abbotsford Chief Constable Barry Daniel has asked the chief of
New Westminster police to be the reviewing officer for an investigation
into the shots-fired aspect of the case.

Chief Constable Peter Young will also serve as the disciplinary authority
for 12 citizen complaints that have been filed as a result of the raid.

Daniel said in a press release that he asked an outside chief to oversee
the investigation "to ensure that it is seen to be impartial." A full
report will be made to the Abbotsford police board, he said.

Meanwhile, one of the adults who was in the house when the raid occurred
has been arrested on a warrant for assault causing bodily harm.

Jason Eli Rowsom, 28, allegedly assaulted a 23-year-old male at a Shell gas
station in the 2000-block of McCallum Road in Abbotsford Monday night.

Police say the alleged victim was knocked unconscious, but later walked to
a hospital. They also say it appears the two individuals knew each other.

Rowsom was highly critical of the police raid, calling it a "violent and
brutal affair and totally uncalled for."

He was in the house with his four children, and said police should have
realized a child's birthday party was under way.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Axworthy Launches Dialogue On Drugs (According to UPI,
Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy said in Jamaica today
that the problem of "narcotic drug abuse" in the Americas "will only
be solved by moving beyond legal approaches and viewing them
from a broad human perspective." Axworthy said Canada is launching
a dialogue among the hemisphere's foreign ministers to address the impact
of illicit drugs on the region's societies.)

Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1999 08:14:30 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Canada: Wire: Axworthy Launches Dialogue On Drugs
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: Fri, 08 Jan 1999
Source: United Press International
Copyright: 1999 United Press International

AXWORTHY LAUNCHES DIALOGUE ON DRUGS

OTTAWA, Jan. 8 (UPI) - Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy says the
problem of narcotic drug abuse in the Americas ``will only be solved by
moving beyond legal approaches and viewing them from a broad human
perspective.''

Speaking in Jamaica today, Axworthy said Canada is launching a dialogue
among the hemisphere's foreign ministers to address the impact of illicit
drugs on the region's societies.

The Foreign Affairs department in Ottawa quote him as saying, ``Drug abuse
in the Americas is intimately linked to poverty, urban decay and criminal
elements, and threatens democratic development, sound economic management,
and even relations between states.''

The Canadian minister, who met with Jamaican Prime Minister Percival
Patterson, is set to discuss his drug strategy in the next few days with
government leaders in Mexico and Nicaragua.

He is calling for a broad dialogue on the issue among foreign ministers of
the region, who are to discuss it in a meeting later this year.

Officials from Canada's Foreign Affairs department are set to consult with
foreign ministers of the region over the next few months, ahead of the
foreign ministers' meeting.

Prime Minister Jean Chretien launched an initiative to form a dialogue group
among the foreign ministers when he attended the 1998 Summit of the Americas
in Santiago, Chile.

Canada is linking the problem of illicit drugs with the proliferation of
small arms among criminal gangs.

Axworthy is spearheading a move to have armed forces in industrialized
nations destroy small arms that become outdated, rather than allow them to
be exported and fall into the wrong hands.

All rights reserved.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Nicaragua Holds Canadian On Marijuana Charges (The Reuters version
of Wednesday's news about Nicaragua jailing a Canadian horticulturalist
on charges that he his commercial hemp farm was a front for an illegal
marijuana farm)

Date: Fri, 08 Jan 1999 14:24:40 -0500
To: drctalk@drcnet.org
From: Richard Lake (rlake@mapinc.org)
Subject: HEMP AGRO/Nicaragua story UPDATE Friday, 8 Jan 2:30 pm EST

Dear Friends

An update on the story. First, no, we have no new news about the situation.

Thanks to everyone who helped widely distributed the story Don Wirtshafter
wrote about this situation. While it carried a label as a press release, it
was in fact a draft that had not been intended for wide distribution, at
least not to the media.

Thanks to help from MAPer Steve Young a real press release has been
written, and Don is having it distributed to the media as I write this.
Hopefully this may correct some of the errors in some of the first news
articles on this situation.

Tom Paine has posted the story Don wrote at:
http://www.legalize-usa.org/hemp/nicaragua/hemp-agro.htm

Because the long URLs to the newspapers in Nicaragua were broken in many of
the email postings, it may be easier for readers who want to see those
stories to use the URLs on the above website. MAP would be most interested
in receiving translations of any of the stories. Translations do not have
to be flawless (translations never are, but software driven translations
simply do not work well enough yet). If anyone does translate any of the
items, please send them to me directly at rlake@mapinc.org

Of course, we are interested in any and all English language newspaper
articles which should be sent to editor@mapinc.org For basic newshawking
instructions, see: http://www.mapinc.org/hawk.htm

The latest posted item is the one from Thursday's Toronto Star at:
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n027.a07.html

However, Reuters has sent out a wire service story (not yet posted, so it
is provided below) which may result in more news stories. Hopefully the
press release will reach some media before the lack of accurate information
in the Reuters story increases the problems.

Oh, my contribution to helping with this story is not just because of my
association with MAP. Donny and I have worked on a number of projects over
the last couple of years, including efforts to help bring Ohio activists
together (we have a Drug Policy Forum of Ohio email list, for example).
When Donny is in town (he will be in NYC this weekend) he often joins the
activists who discuss drug policy issues on MAP CHAT on Saturday and Suncay
evenings at: http://www.mapinc.org/chat/

Thanks, again, to everyone, for all you are doing!

Richard Lake
Senior Editor; MAPnews, MAPnews-Digest and DrugNews-Digest
http://www.DrugSense.org/drugnews/

***

Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: Thu, 07 Jan 1999
Source: Reuters
Copyright: 1999 Reuters Limited.

NICARAGUA HOLDS CANADIAN ON MARIJUANA CHARGES

(Reuters; 01/08/99)

MANAGUA, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Nicaragua has jailed a Canadian man on
charges that he used his commercial hemp business as a front for an
illegal marijuana farm, a prosecutor said on Thursday.

Paul Thomas Wylie, 45, of Burlington, Ontario, was awaiting trial in
Managua on charges of planting 100 hectares of marijuana, said Maria
Alicia Duarte, a prosecutor working for Nicaragua's attorney general.

Criminal Judge Orieta Benavides also issued warrants for six other
Canadian shareholders in the business, Hemp Agro International, who
live outside Nicaragua, as well as a Nicaraguan who lives in the
United States.

The judge may consider seeking extradition of those seven, although
the attorney general's office will not seek such an order until
establishing more concrete evidence, Duarte said.

Hemp Agro International was licensed by the Nicaraguan government to
import seeds for industrial hemp, which is used to make products such
as rope and textiles and is legal in Canada.

But Nicaraguan authorities charge the level of tetrahydrocannabinol
(THC) in the plants exceeded legal levels, qualifying it as an illegal
substance. Nicaraguan National Police burned the crop at Hemp Agro's
farm on Managua's outskirts late last month.

The case has generated daily headlines in Nicaragua, as Agriculture
Ministry and other government officials were implicated for their role
in approving the operation.

Benavides found administrative failings but no criminal activity in
the government's role in the case. But the judge left open the
possibility of naming additional defendants in the future.

[Reuters:International-0107.00677] 01/08/99
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Colombian Rebels Say They Might Switch, Fight Coca (According to a Knight
Ridder news service article in the Seattle Times, the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia, or FARC, says it might be willing to switch sides in the
drug war and actually work to eradicate coca crops if President Andres
Pastrana gives it direct control of one of Colombia's 1,072 townships - an
area equivalent to a large U.S. county. However, in a speech yesterday
opening the highly touted peace talks, FARC rebel commander Joaquin Gomez
decried increasing U.S. anti-drug assistance as a smoke screen for
counterinsurgency efforts. "U.S. leaders spend huge sums of money through the
Colombian security forces to harm civilians with bombings, strafings and
indiscriminate fumigation, wiping out fields and barnyard animals and leaving
a good part of the land sterile," he said.)

Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1999 13:54:49 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Colombia: Colombian Rebels Say They Might Switch, Fight Coca
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: John Smith
Pubdate: Fri, Jan 8 1999
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Contact: opinion@seatimes.com
Website: http://www.seattletimes.com/
Copyright: 1999 The Seattle Times Company
Author: Tim Johnson, Knight Ridder Newspapers

COLOMBIAN REBELS SAY THEY MIGHT SWITCH, FIGHT COCA

SAN VICENTE DEL CAGUAN, Colombia - Insurgents in Colombia say they
might be willing to switch sides in the drug war and actually work to
eradicate coca crops, even as one of their leaders yesterday lashed
out at U.S. counterdrug programs here.

A spokesman for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC),
Camilo Lopez, told Knight Ridder that insurgents could wipe out all
coca within four years.

Lopez said the insurgency has asked President Andres Pastrana to give
it direct control of one of Colombia's 1,072 townships - an area
equivalent to a large U.S. county - to demonstrate that rebels know
how to knock the wind out of the drug trade.

"We don't need coca crops to survive. We don't need a single peasant
farmer to grow coca," Lopez said.

Colombia has become the world's No. 1 producer of cocaine and a major
source of heroin to the United States. FARC rebels provide armed
protection to coca and poppy fields and narcotics-processing
laboratories. Many experts are skeptical that the rebels would give up
their ties to the flourishing drug trade despite recent pronouncements.

U.S. aid to Colombia is soaring to meet the rising drug threat.

Coca eradication was a subject of discussion when a midlevel State
Department envoy met with a FARC commander in San Jose, Costa Rica, in
December, U.S. diplomats say.

In a speech at a ceremony to launch highly touted peace talks here
yesterday, FARC rebel commander Joaquin Gomez decried rising U.S.
anti-drug assistance as a smoke screen for counterinsurgency efforts.

"U.S. leaders spend huge sums of money through the Colombian security
forces to harm civilians with bombings, strafings and indiscriminate
fumigation, wiping out fields and barnyard animals and leaving a good
part of the land sterile," he said.

Gomez cited what he said was the U.S. financing of a new
counternarcotics battalion in the town of Barranco Colorado, in
Guaviare state, whose true aim is "to maintain a cordon around the
FARC secretariat."

FARC spokesman Lopez said rebels would shoot at U.S. advisers as well
as Colombian police they might find in the battalion.

"If U.S. advisers come and they are in the battalion, we aren't going
to know who is (American) and who isn't during combat. We're not going
to ask for identity documents. . . . Whoever dies, dies," he said.

Pastrana has begun an investment program, called the Colombia Plan, to
seek foreign help for massive development in the eastern plains, where
most coca is grown.

Yesterday's ceremony in San Vicente del Caguan, a remote jungle town
in southern Colombia, marked the start of talks designed to establish
an agenda and locale for full-scale negotiations later this year. The
talks would be aimed at ending a war that has claimed tens of
thousands of lives, displaced hundreds of thousands of people and cost
the Colombian government at least $4 billion a year.

Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda, the longtime head of the FARC, had been
expected to participate but did not show up. It would have been the
first public appearance in decades by the 68-year-old guerrilla chief,
who has spent most of his life in hiding. His absence was apparently
due to threats from right-wing paramilitary death squads.

Marulanda's absence from the ceremony dampened a festive atmosphere in
the town. Pastrana returned to the capital, Bogota, immediately afterward.

After the ceremony, four government-appointed negotiators met with
rebel commanders in a church sacristy to discuss an agenda and
timetable for the talks.

Marulanda's conditions for peace include the dismantling of right-wing
paramilitary groups and the exchange of 252 jailed rebels for more
than 350 police and soldiers captured since 1996.

In the long term, he seeks wealth redistribution in a country where
the top 5 percent earn 30 times more than the bottom 5 percent.

Information from The Washington Post and The Associated Press is
included in this report.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Hong Kong, Japan Police Seize $53 Mln In "Ice"
(Reuters confuses methamphetamine with "ice," a related drug,
in describing the bust of 14 people with 100 kilograms
aboard an ocean-going vessel in Japan.)

Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1999 08:56:59 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Japan: Wire: Hong Kong, Japan Police Seize $53 Mln In "Ice"
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: Fri, 08 Jan 1999
Source: Reuters
Copyright: 1999 Reuters Limited.

HONG KONG, JAPAN POLICE SEIZE $53 MLN IN "ICE"

HONG KONG, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Hong Kong and Japanese police seized six
billion yen ($53.6 million) worth of the drug "ice" aboard an ocean-going
vessel in Japan and arrested 14 people, police said on Friday.

They seized 100 kg (220 lb) of methamphetamine, better known as ice, hidden
in two fire extinguishers aboard the vessel at Hamada, a port in Japan's
southwest Shimane Prefecture.

Police said they arrested nine crew members. Two Japanese and three Hong
Kong Chinese, believed to be members of a drug syndicate, were also held.

Koo Sii-hung, chief superintendent of Hong Kong police's Narcotics Bureau,
said earlier investigations into an active Hong Kong-based drug trafficking
syndicate had suggested the vessel was carrying drugs from Taiwan to Japan.

"We then informed the Japanese authorities and sent two of our NB (Narcotics
Bureau) officers there to coordinate and conduct a joint operation," Koo
told a news conference.

"The seized drugs could be sold at a street value of about six billion yen
or HK$420 million in Japan," Koo said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Heroin Deaths Soar (According to the Herald Sun, in Australia,
the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine released statistics yesterday
showing about 250 people had died from so-called heroin overdoses
last year, a jump of 64 from the previous year.)

Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1999 19:42:58 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Australia: Heroin Deaths Soar
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: GALAN@prodigy.net (G. A ROBISON)
Pubdate: Fri, 8 Jan 1999
Source: Herald Sun (Australia)
Copyright: News Limited 1999
Contact: hseditor@hwt.newsltd.com.au
Website: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/
Author: Tanya Giles

HEROIN DEATHS SOAR

HEROIN deaths are increasing rapidly, with more than 250 people dying
from overdoses last year.

And already this year, two heroin users each day have lost their lives
after playing Russian roulette with a needle.

Chief Insp. John McKoy, head of the drug squad, said while police did
not condone heroin use, they were desperate to prevent more fatalities.

Chief Insp. McKoy pleaded with heroin addicts to take precautions when
using the drug or they were risking death.

"We recognise that heroin users are victims of the insidious heroin
trade and, as members of the community, we seek to protect them from
the ultimate penalty that many heroin users are now paying," he said.

Statistics from the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine released
yesterday show about 250 people died from heroin overdoses last year,
a jump of 64 from the previous year.

Of those heroin users who died in 1998, 85 per cent were
male.

Their ages ranged from 14 to 55 years, and while 132 were unemployed,
13 were students, 12 were pensioners, six were chefs and six were machinists.

St Kilda had the highest number of deaths last year with 13.

There were 11 deaths in both Melbourne and Dandenong, 10 in Fitzroy,
nine in Footscray and seven in each of Reservoir, Northcote and Frankston.

Most overdose deaths were in the homes (184) followed by deaths in
cars (17) and public toilets (17). Deaths also occurred on church
grounds, in prison and on the beach.

Chief Insp. McKoy said heroin deaths first soared in 1991.

New dealers at that time started to sell better quality heroin at
cheaper prices and increased the trade.

In 1991, 49 people died from heroin overdoses. But the number rose
quickly to 98 in 1992 and 140 in 1995.

Chief Insp. McKoy said the quality of heroin being sold had jumped
from 10per cent purity in 1991 to up to 80per cent today.

He said police crackdowns on the drug trade, including the seizure of
400kg - valued at up to $400 million - on a New South Wales beach last
year, were having effect.

An indication of the success was the 20 per cent increase in the price
of heroin to up to $1000 a gram in recent days as heroin supplies
dwindled, he said.

Dr Greg Rumbold, of the Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre, urged
addicts to use caution when taking heroin and:

ALWAYS use heroin in the company of others so they can call an
ambulance if needed.

LEARN the purity of the drug purchased.

DON'T become blase about death after surviving overdoses.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 73 (The Drug Reform Coordination
Network's original compilation of news and calls to action regarding drug
policy, including - Murder charges against four in Baltimore dismissed
for lack of court space; Rehnquist to Congress: stop federalizing crime;
Special report: Canadian citizens, investors busted for hemp to help
Nicaraguan hurricane victims; Ann Landers speaks out on the drug war,
marijuana laws; Syringe exchange protest in New Jersey; Medicinal marijuana
in Hawai'i: A review of events; Dutch marijuana use half that of America,
study reveals; Media alert: PBS Frontline to air "Snitch"; and an editorial
by Adam J. Smith: New Hope in California.)

Date: Fri, 08 Jan 1999 07:07:00 -0800
To: drc-natl@drcnet.org
From: DRCNet (drcnet@drcnet.org)
Subject: The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue #73
Sender: owner-drc-natl@drcnet.org

The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue #73 -- January 8, 1998
A Publication of the Drug Reform Coordination Network

-------- PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE --------

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

(This issue can be also be read on our web site at
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/073.html. Check out the DRCNN
weekly radio segment at http://www.drcnet.org/drcnn/.)

PERMISSION to reprint or redistribute any or all of the
contents of The Week Online is hereby granted. We ask that
any use of these materials include proper credit and, where
appropriate, a link to one or more of our web sites. If
your publication customarily pays for publication, DRCNet
requests checks payable to the organization. If your
publication does not pay for materials, you are free to use
the materials gratis. In all cases, we request notification
for our records, including physical copies where material
has appeared in print. Contact: Drug Reform Coordination
Network, 2000 P St., NW, Suite 615, Washington, DC 20036,
(202) 293-8340 (voice), (202) 293-8344 (fax), e-mail
drcnet@drcnet.org. Thank you.

Articles of a purely educational nature in The Week Online
appear courtesy of the DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise
noted.

NOTES TO OUR READERS! An important action alert will be
going out to the list this weekend, probably Sunday. Please
stay tuned and check in early next week. Note also that
this issue includes a letter-writing alert, responding to
Ann Landers' very positive columns of recent weeks.

If you've requested tickets from us to the Digital Be-In,
taking place in San Francisco this Saturday night, 7:00pm to
2:00am, your name should be on the DRCNet admit list at the
door. If you are paying by check or cash, please visit the
DRCNet table after you are admitted. If you are paying by
credit card, you should be all set. If your request doesn't
reach us on time, and your name isn't on the list, you'll
need to pay the full door price of $20. (It's $15 reserving
with us in advance.) Find out more information about the
Be-In online at http://www.be-in.com, call (415) 777-9199,
or review our bulletin of earlier this week, at
http://www.drcnet.org/rapid/1999/1-4.html#be-in.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Murder Charges Against Four in Baltimore Dismissed for
Lack of Court Space
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/073.html#dismissed

2. Rehnquist to Congress: Stop Federalizing Crime
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/073.html#rehnquist

3. SPECIAL REPORT: Canadian Citizens, Investors Busted for
Hemp to Help Nicaraguan Hurricane Victims
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/073.html#nicaragua

4. Ann Landers Speaks out On The Drug War, Marijuana Laws
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/073.html#annlanders

5. Syringe Exchange Protest in New Jersey
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/073.html#protest

6. Medicinal Marijuana in Hawai'i: A Review of Events
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/073.html#hawaii

7. Dutch Marijuana Use Half That Of America, Study Reveals
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/073.html#cedro

8. MEDIA ALERT: PBS Frontline to air "Snitch"
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/073.html#snitch

9. EDITORIAL: New Hope in California
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/073.html#editorial

***

1. Murder Charges Against Four in Baltimore Dismissed for
Lack of Court Space

The backlog that exists in Baltimore's Circuit Courts, due
mainly to thousands of drug cases, resulted in the dismissal
of murder charges against four individuals this week (1/6)
who had waited more than 13 months for a trial. Felony
trials are supposed to begin no later than six months
following arraignment, but the city has neither enough
judges, courtrooms, nor prosecutors nor public defenders to
handle the caseload.

Michael N. Gambrill, District Public Defender for Baltimore
told The Week Online that more than 80% of the cases in the
district court are drug cases.

"The police might arrest one junkie for passing a small
amount of something to another junkie. Now, technically,
they're distributing, but the reality is that it's just
people who are addicted who are feeding their habits,"
Gambrill said. But they're being brought into the system as
felonies, which is overloading the system."

The by-product, says Gambrill, is a lack of justice. "It's
not uncommon for people to sit in jail for six to eight
months, and sometimes longer before trial. These people
haven't been found guilty of anything. They lose their
homes, they lose their jobs, they lose contact with their
families and loved ones based simply on the fact that they
have been charged. That is not justice."

In the case of the dropped murder charges, the four
defendants had been waiting more than three years for a
trial. In that case, the normal delays were compounded by
the difficulties of finding dates on which the four separate
defense attorneys (none of those defendants were represented
by the public defender), the prosecutor, the judge and a
courtroom were all available.

***

2. Rehnquist to Congress: Stop Federalizing Crime

On New Year's Eve day, Chief Justice of the United States
Supreme Court William Rehnquist delivered his annual end-of-
year report on the judiciary to Congress. His message to
legislators, spoken in blunt terms, was to stop making a
federal case out of every crime that hits the headlines,
overburdening the federal judiciary in the process.

Rehnquist cited "the pressure on Congress to appear
responsive to every highly publicized societal ill or
sensational crime" as a driving force behind the fact that
the federal criminal caseload increased by 15% in 1998
alone. "The trend to federalize crimes that have
traditionally been handled in state courts... threatens to
change entirely the nature of our federal system" he added.
The increased federal workload involving criminal matters,
with their constitutional guarantee of a speedy trial, has
wreaked havoc with the opportunity for civil litigants to be
heard. There is often a three to five year wait for civil
trials.

Drug offenses are one category of crime that have been
largely federalized, giving prosecutors the option of
bringing charges in either federal or state court. And
since federal mandatory minimum sentences tend to be
draconian, they are able to use the threat of federal
prosecution to force people to become informants.

The number of drug offenses tried in federal court each year
has risen from just over 12,000 in 1992 to more than 16,000
in 1998.

Scott Wallace, Director of defender legal services for the
National Legal Aid and Defender Association told The Week
Online that the problem stems from the desire of politicians
to make a name for themselves.

"This trend (the federalization of crime) arose from
Congress' frustration with its traditional role of simply
funding innovation. There weren't many headlines to be had
for being thoughtful. There was far more glamour in
actually toughening sentences.

"Members of Congress, even the attorneys among them are not
particularly knowledgeable about -- or if they are they are
not very concerned with -- the traditional separation of
powers between the states and the federal government. Not
nearly as concerned as they are about getting their name on
a new law."

But according to Wallace, there is a cost.

"First, the federal sentences are almost always far harsher
than state sentences, which creates enormous disparities in
the way similar defendants are treated for the same offense.
In addition, when we look at the criminal law in its
traditional role, it is the most serious way in which a
community can express its varying degrees of disapproval of
specified behaviors. By taking that power and placing it in
the hands of federal bureaucrats, who are wholly
unaccountable to the people of any particular city or state,
the connection between community values and that statement
of disapproval is lost. Therefore, if the people of Iowa
think that its okay to carry a weapon, or else if the people
of Oregon don't think that the possession of marijuana is a
criminal act, it's irrelevant to a one size fits all federal
approach."

Rehnquist argued that before creating new federal criminal
legislation, legislators should consider whether there has
been a "demonstrated state failure" to deal with a
particular matter, and "whether we want most of our legal
relationships decided at the national rather than the local
level."

This issue has long been on Rehnquist's agenda. In 1995, he
wrote the majority opinion in the Lopez case which struck
down the Gun Free School Zone Act, which had made it a
federal crime to possess a gun within a thousand yards of
any school. Rehnquist reasoned that there was no credible
argument that the Act fell under Congress' powers to
regulate interstate commerce.

***

3. SPECIAL REPORT: Canadian Citizens, Investors Busted for
Hemp to Help Nicaraguan Hurricane Victims

NOTE TO OUR READERS: This first-person account from Don
Wirthshafter of the Ohio Hempery reached our desk today. We
present it here in its entirety. The Week Online will cover
this international story as it unfolds.

A story is breaking in Nicaragua that should reach the world
stage soon. I just returned from trying to turn around an
ugly situation, but left without visible results. I hope
some fair treatment in the U.S. and Canadian media can do
some good.

The story starts with a group of Canadian investors who
wanted to do some good for Nicaragua. Bankers, builders and
merchants got together and incorporated Hemp Agro
International with offices in Vancouver, Toronto and
Managua. Their website (http://www.hempagro.com) describes
their project and development they hoped to bring to the
tropics.

Nicaragua stagnates in the aftermath of series of natural
disasters and a U.S. financed civil war. If there was ever
a place to demonstrate industrial hemp's utility for
sustainable economic development, Nicaragua is it. Hemp
Agro planted 100 acres of Chinese hempseed and hired a full-
time professional botanist to supervise a crop improvement
program. The company envisioned growing a series of
hempseed crops, pressing the seeds for oil, making products
from hemp oil and utilizing the stalks for particleboard.
The project was dependent on their developing an improved
tropical variety of seed hemp, something not being attempted
anywhere else in the world.

The project took on additional significance in the aftermath
of Hurricane Mitch. Tens of thousands of homes need to be
replaced. The relief agencies had a choice, cut down
thousands of acres of trees for building materials or
accelerate the building of the hempstalk particleboard mill.
Most of the traditional crops suffered heavy damage during
the storm, Hemp Agro's crop withstood the winds and rain.
Fifty employees were busy harvesting bags full of hemp seed
and building a mountain of hemp stalks.

That's when a U.S. DEA agent went ballistic. One day before
Christmas, he caused an army of black hooded soldiers to
move in and occupy the field. Each posed for their picture
in front of the large signboard that marked the "Hemp Agro
Nicaragua, S.A. Research and Development Site" (see
http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/archivo/1998/diciembre/24-diciembre-1998/nac
ional/nacional10.html).
(This and the following links are in Spanish. For those who
do not speak Spanish, paste these URL's into
http://babelfish.altavista.com/cgi-bin/translate? for a
rough translation into English.) Then they began the long
task of gathering the crop in piles and setting them on fire
(http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/archivo/1998/diciembre/26-diciembre-1998/).

Dr. Paul Wylie, the Canadian horticulturist who was hired by
the group to supervise the project, was feeling pretty
satisfied with his work in Nicaragua. His employees were
busy harvesting their first crop of seeds. He had learned
quite a bit about growing hemp in the tropics. Christmas
was approaching and the harvesting would have to stop for
the holidays. Dr. Wylie was in a taxi on his way back from
the bank with the payroll for his 50 workers. A black car
tried to force them off the road. A couple of motorcycles
approached. Both Wylie and his driver thought they were
being robbed. The driver started to head up on the curb to
get away when bullets began tearing up the cab. Wylie and
the driver were terrified until their attackers finally
identified themselves as police. Wylie thought his troubles
were over, but they were just beginning.

Wylie was arrested and taken to the brig. The same prison
that former dictator, Anastasio Somoza, used for his worst
political enemies. A perfect movie set for an 1850's
western, except it's an historic military base. Perched on
the rim of the volcano, it's got an incredible view. Only
the prisoners can't see a thing, they are kept in dungeons
underground.

In Nicaragua, you are considered guilty until proven
innocent. Forget the right to counsel, forget the right to
remain silent, this is not America. In the aftermath of his
arrest, ten days of hearings took place on the case, only
Wylie had no right to attend or help his attorneys prepare.
He was locked up tight. Bail or bond were not available.
Without an explanation of the charges, Wylie could not even
figure out what he was being accused of. Thankfully, his
wife was able to bring him food every day. Without family
support like this, prisoners starve.

Because of my expertise in hemp and my legal credentials, I
was asked to hurry down to Nicaragua and help the local
attorneys the investors hired to bring reason to the
situation. I was determined to prove to myself and the
court that this really was industrial hemp and not marijuana
that was being grown. I also wanted to visit Dr. Wylie and
see if I could raise his spirits.

It took a court order to visit a prisoner in the brig, even
for attorneys and translators. Armed with a court order
that took days to obtain, the guards still only allowed us a
short, 15-minute visit. It was barely enough time for
introductions, and no time to get to the details of the
case. Still, Wylie was able to briefly describe his
research methodology.

Dr. Wylie described it as the George Washington Carver
method of crop improvement. Start with seeds from as close
to the original source as possible. (Hemp originated in
southeast Asia.) This way you get the most genetic
diversity. Plant a million plants. From these, find the
thousand specimens that best match your breeding objectives.
From these prime plants, plant a million seeds. Plant the
seeds from the best 1000 plants for five years and you will
see spectacular improvements in the breeding of that crop.

It was an ambitious attempt to create a tropical variety of
low THC industrial hemp, but the U.S. DEA got in the way.
Our drug warriors refuse to recognize a difference between
hemp and marijuana. This is why the DEA is being sued by a
group of Kentucky farmers (see
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/042.html#kentucky and
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/048.html#ky-hemp). The U.S.
employed DEA agent looked at the plant in a microscope and
saw the glandular trichromes characteristic of Cannabis. He
concluded therefore it must be marijuana, never considering
that legal industrial hemp also has these characteristic
parts.

Nicaragua is in a vulnerable position. It needs a massive
influx of foreign aid to begin its recovery from the civil
war and Hurricane Mitch. Pressure from the U.S. diplomats
orced the government to act quickly. One government
minister after another came to court to kowtow to the
foreign imperialists. Politicians who praised the project a
week before began denying that they gave approval or claimed
that the investors lied to get their permits. Ten days of
hearings were held over the New Year's holiday. The tide
turned from whether a crime had been committed to which
government heads would roll for allowing this scandal to
develop.

The scandal has occupied the front page in Managua's three
papers since it broke the day before Christmas. As the tide
turned against the defendants, the papers got more vicious.
See the following articles:

http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/archivo/1998/diciembre/30-diciembre-1998/nac
ional/nacional10.html
http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/archivo/1998/diciembre/30-diciembre-1998/nac
ional/nacional5.html
http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/archivo/1998/diciembre/31-diciembre-1998/nac
ional/nacional1.html
http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/archivo/1999/enero/02-enero-1999/nacional/na
cional11.html
http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/archivo/1999/enero/02-enero-1999/nacional/na
cional10.html

Monday's paper featured one story about the trial
(http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/archivo/1999/enero/04-enero-1999/nacional/n
acional7.html)
and another entitled "They Sell Crack in the Schools" about
a government report that ended up describing the 100 acre bust
(http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/archivo/1999/enero/04-enero-1999/nacional/n
acional1.html).

Each of the Canadians investors in the project are now
charged with major drug crimes. They are subject to arrest
in Canada and extradition to Nicaragua under the reciprocal
provisions of the treaties intended to bring
narcotraficantes north for trial in the U.S. or Canada. We
are not describing a typical bunch of criminals. Hemp Agro
International was founded by established Canadian citizens
who wanted to do some good for the world. As part of their
many applications for permits from various Nicaragua
Agencies, the group provided the authorities with paperwork
certifying they each had clean criminal records in Canada.
Most had never thought about ever finding themselves in a
criminal court.

One problem confuses the issue for all involved. For the
position of local manager, the investors chose to hire an
historic figure, Oscar Danilo BlandĒn. BlandĒn is a central
character in the C.I.A. drug running scandal exposed by Gary
Webb in the San Jose Mercury News and his recent book Dark
Alliance (see http://www.drcnet.org/wol/043.html#garywebb).
BlandĒn was one of the founders of the Contra party and
remains well connected with the power structure in
Nicaragua. But to finance the contra armies in the Reagan
1980's, BlandĒn helped import tons of cocaine into America.
He served almost two years in a federal prison. BlandĒn
holds an MBA, is bilingual and became quite excited by the
potential of what hemp could do for his country. He proved
a natural choice for project manager. But the tide turned.
When the government and media branded this research plot as
the "largest marijuana bust in the history of Central
America," BlandĒn's checkered history seemed to be as proof
that these gringos were up to no good.

Hemp Agro had obtained more than twenty licenses for
conducting business in Nicaragua. The Agricultural Ministry
was informed as to their plans and had issued licenses for
the importation of Chinese seed. Nothing was hidden here,
the company was doing all it could to enlist government
support for the planned particleboard mill and oil crushing
mill. The government ministers were invited to see the
field. A large sign marked its location. The paperwork
filed in Nicaragua gave the names of all of the investors.
Would these steps be taken for a field of marijuana?

The defense lawyers decided to put me on the stand to give
expert testimony about hemp. It was a frustrating
experience. "We call it 'going to Vietnam,'" the attorneys
told me in an effort to prepare me for the hearing. "It's
brutal, ugly and take no prisoners." They were right. The
usual civil behavior of attorneys that I am used to was not
present there at all. It was war.

We prepared more than 100 pages of journal articles
translated into Spanish for the court. But because these
were not originals, they were not admissible. Court was
held in a cramped office lined by desks with old manual
typewriters. It proceeded slowly because a secretary needed
type a live transcript. In my case, since my Spanish was
not up to speed, a translator did his best to make meaning
of my technical presentation, phrase by phrase. It crawled
slowly. When a question was posed to me, the transcript
would be made, the secretary would read it back as my
translator put it in English, I would answer pausing for the
translation and the typing. It dragged on until 7:00 pm on
New Year's Day.

The courtroom was crowed with newspaper reporters and
photographers who would crowded in to snap close-ups of my
face. Nobody was introduced and I was not allowed to ask
any questions. When I was done the lawyers commenced arcane
legal arguments centering on why I did not present an
embossed identification of myself as an attorney and
botanist. The judge kept my bar card. I am used to court,
but this was something else. It was an ambush.

I was able to describe for the court the differences between
hemp and marijuana. I explained the difference in the way
the crop was grown and harvested. The evidence was that the
employees were beating the harvested plants on a rail "like
beans." This was clearly grown and harvested seed hemp and
was totally inconsistent with the methods of planting and
harvesting marijuana. I explained that contrary to the
assertion of the DEA, that international law gave Nicaragua
sovereignty to decide the question for itself. "Cannabis
grown for the purpose of industrial use" was excepted from
the treaty provisions. A limit on the level of THC in the
crop was up to Nicaragua to define. Switzerland, for
example, has not set a limit.

I described the market for the seeds and why the oil was so
special. I explained that the test performed by the DEA is
incapable of discriminating hemp and marijuana. DEA agents
were not violating the sovereignty of Canada or Switzerland,
yet they felt at home running roughshod over our Central
American neighbor. I explained why the researchers had to
go to China for their seed, nothing close was available in
Europe or America. The low-THC European varieties were for
a far different latitude and climate and would not work in
Nicaragua. Besides, they are all so protected by plant
patents, registrations and restrictive contracts that the
seeds would have to be bought every year. This means they
would never acclimate to the Nicaraguan growing conditions
and would be too unreliable to anchor an industry. China
has grown hemp for seed for thousands of years. The people
of the region where the seeds originated do not even have a
concept of the use of the hemp plant as a drug.

I told the judge of the 22 web sites I found that sold
marijuana seeds. The minimum price offered was $5 per seed.
At 60,000 seeds per kilogram, a kilo of seeds would be worth
$300,000. The 15,000-kilogram container shipment from China
would be 4.5 billion dollars if it were marijuana. I said
it was impossible and crazy to assume that this much seed
could be marijuana. Besides, I told the court, this
particular shipment of seeds was examined by the U.S.
Customs while the container was being transshipped in Long
Beach, California. The container was emptied for a DEA
inspection. Only hempseeds were found. They released the
shipment to go forward to its destination in Nicaragua.

I described what a hemp economy could do for Nicaragua in
terms of employment and self-sufficiency. I gave good
references for the Canadian defendants whom I had met. I
tried to help, but it felt like I was talking to air.
Yesterday, the judge found probable cause to hold the
defendants up for charges. Dr. Wylie will have to languish
in jail while the government works to extradite the other
defendants from Canada and the U.S. Once arrested and
returned "to the scene of the crime", the defendants will
have no more rights than Dr. Wylie did upon his arrest.
Most of the defendants were only inactive investors in the
project. They have never set foot in Nicaragua. Now they
will have to hire attorneys, fight extradition and suffer
having their reputations smeared around the world.

Nicaragua seems adept at shooting itself in the foot on a
regular basis. What started out as an exciting project to
bring a new industry to a place it was truly needed, has now
turned into an international scandal. It's not just the
investors who are affected. For Nicaragua to progress it
will need help from foreign industries and industrialists,
foreign technology and technologists. When the story of how
Dr. Paul Wylie was treated for his efforts in Nicaragua is
spread in the international community, it will be hard to
get others to commit to even visiting the country. The real
losers are the local compesinos who stood to gain steady
employment in the project. As it is, the government agents
kept the $5000 payroll they seized from Dr. Wylie. The
workers missed their Christmas pay.

There are no winners in this story. The toll will continue
as long as our government obscures the difference between
hemp and marijuana and its agents run roughshod over the
rights of the people of Central America.

I am trying to get some help spreading the word on this
story. If the government spreads it, it will be all about
marijuana. The word hemp will not make it into the story.
I have to come out aggressively to get the word to the media
that there is a lot more behind this "bust" than meets the
eye. Anyone with suggestions is welcome to write or call.

For more information, please contact Don Wirtshafter at
(740) 662-4367 or don@hempery.com, or Grant Sanders, Hemp
Agro International, (905) 681-1110.

***

4. Ann Landers Speaks out On The Drug War, Marijuana Laws

Ann Landers, who, along with her sister "Dear Abby" is one
of the two most popular advice columnists in North America,
had a holiday season to be proud of this year as she
addressed our nation's failing drug war not once but twice.
On Christmas, Ms. Landers published a holiday message which
included the following two paragraphs:

"Unfortunately, the "war on drugs" has turned out to be a
colossal failure. The increase in the number of homicides is
staggering, and most of it is drug-related. Guns and knives
are standard equipment among teenagers. It is not uncommon
for a teenager to get shot or stabbed for his jacket or his
shoes. Metal detectors in schools help some, but not enough.

While alcohol is still the most abused drug of all,
marijuana and stronger substances like crack cocaine are
commonplace in junior and senior high schools. The dropout
rate is appalling. Why should a kid stay in school when he
can get rich dealing drugs? This is the message too many
young people are getting."

Not all of the nation was able to read her words of wisdom,
however, as many newspapers across the country edited out
that part of the message.

Then, on Monday (1/5), Ms. Landers published a letter from a
distraught mother in Virginia whose eighteen year-old son
had been arrested on marijuana charges. The mother argued
that while she disapproved of marijuana use, along with
alcohol and tobacco use, her son had never hurt anyone, had
possessed the marijuana for his personal use, and had "never
had so much as a parking ticket," and yet was facing a long
prison term, which she thought was an injustice as well as a
waste of state resources.

Ann agreed, saying: "I have long believed that the laws
regarding marijuana are too harsh. Those who keep pot for
their own use should not be treated as criminals. Thirty
years in prison makes no sense whatsoever. I'm with you."

YOU CAN HELP! It is important that Ms. Landers, who has
taken previous, cautious steps in the direction of reform
advocacy, gets plenty of letters of support, or even
personal stories from people whose lives and families have
been damaged by the Drug War. Write to her at:

Ann Landers, P.O. Box 11562, Chicago, IL, 60611-0562

If your local paper runs Ann Landers but cut the above
columns or edited out the above-cited material, send them a
letter of complaint.

***

5. Syringe Exchange Protest in New Jersey

On Tuesday, January 12, at twelve noon, citizens of New
Jersey and surrounding regions will gather on the steps of
the State House in Trenton to protest Governor Christine
Whitman's intractability on the issue of syringe exchange.
The protest will coincide with Whitman's State of the State
address and will be sponsored by the New Jersey Harm
Reduction Coalition, the New Jersey chapters of the National
Organization for Women and American Civil Liberties Union,
the New Jersey Collegiate Consortium for Health in
Education, ACT-UP Philadelphia, and ACT-UP New York, among
others.

New Jersey has the nation's third-highest rate of injection-
related AIDS.

If you are in the area, please make an effort to attend this
one-hour demonstration. Donations to defray transportation
and other expenses are welcome. Checks can be made out the
New Jersey Harm Reduction Coalition and sent to NJHRC, P.O.
Box 1459, New Brunswick, NJ 08903. For further information,
call NJHRC at (732) 247-3242.

(Read the Health Emergency 1999 report by Dr. Dawn Day of
the Dogwood Center -- http://www.drcnet.org/healthemergency/
-- for much more information on the impact of injection-
related AIDS, particularly as it impacts minority
communities.)

***

6. Medicinal Marijuana in Hawai'i: A Review of Events

Don Topping, President, Drug Policy Forum of Hawai'i,
http://www.drugsense.org/dpfhi

In early December 1998, Governor Benjamin Cayetano, recently
re-elected by a slender margin of 5,000 votes, announced
that he intended to introduce legislation on three highly
controversial issues in Hawai'i: domestic partnerships,
euthanasia, and medicinal marijuana.

Following this announcement, the Governor met with Pam
Lichty and Don Topping of the Drug Policy Forum of Hawai'i,
and Chuck Thomas of the Marijuana Policy Project. During
this meeting, the Governor appeared determined to follow
through, asked very good questions, and requested that DPFH
work with his Attorney General and Director of Health to
work on draft legislation.

While Chuck Thomas was in Honolulu, he joined Lichty and
Topping at meetings with key legislators, i.e. Chairs of the
Health Committees for the House and Senate; Chair of the
House Judiciary Committee, and key staffers of the co-chairs
of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The chairs of both
health committees said that they would introduce a bill on
medicinal marijuana in their respective houses. The
judiciary committees took a more restrained, although
somewhat supportive position.

On December 17, board members of DPFH met with the AG's
representative and Director of Health, during which the AG's
rep made it clear that his boss opposed the idea regardless
of the Governor's position, claiming that she (the AG)
"served the people, not the governor." It was also hinted
at the meeting that the head of the State Narcotics Control
Division would authorize his officers to make arrests under
federal law should such legislation pass the state
legislature.

An independent poll taken in Hawai'i in September shows that
63% of Hawaii's voters support medicinal marijuana.

DPFH has already received commitments from several patients
and physicians who will testify in favor of the bill. DPFH
is also working with MPP and others in the reform movement
on this issue. DPFH expects opposition to this bill from
city, state and federal law enforcement groups, and various
other groups who support current drug policy.

The coming session of the Hawai'i State Legislature marks
the beginning of a two-year legislative period. Thus, even
if the proposed bill for medicinal marijuana fails to make
it through both houses, it will still be alive for the
session that begins in January, 2000.

***

7. Dutch Marijuana Use Half That Of America, Study Reveals

from the NORML Weekly News, courtesy the NORML Foundation,
http://www.norml.org

January 7, 1999, Amsterdam, the Netherlands: Americans
consume marijuana at rates more than double those of their
Dutch counterparts, according to a study published Tuesday
by the Center for Drug Research (CEDRO) of the University of
Amsterdam.

"These findings illustrate that criminalizing marijuana does
little, if anything, to discourage use," said Allen St.
Pierre, executive director of The NORML Foundation. He
noted that Dutch law allows citizens over 18 to buy and
consume marijuana in government-regulated coffeeshops.

The study found that 15.6 percent of Dutch persons aged 12
and over had tried marijuana. Of these, 4.5 percent
reported using marijuana in the past year, and 2.5 percent
said they used the drug during the past month. By contrast,
32.9 percent of Americans admit trying marijuana, and nine
percent report using the drug in the past year. Slightly
more than five percent of Americans say they use the drug
monthly.

The study's authors concluded that "a repressive [marijuana]
policy as in the U.S. does not necessarily result in less
drug use. The availability of drugs is no determining
factor for levels of drug use in a country."

The study, financed by the health ministry and conducted by
Amsterdam University and the Central Bureau of Statistics,
is the first to document national marijuana use rates.

Data previously compiled by the Dutch National Institute of
Health and Addiction (NIHA) determined that Dutch
adolescents use marijuana at significantly lower rates than
Americans. The agency reported that 21 percent of Dutch
adolescents admit trying the drug compared to 45 percent of
American high school seniors.

For more information, please contact either Allen St. Pierre
or Paul Armentano of The NORML Foundation at (202) 483-8751.
To view a summary of the CEDRO report online, please visit
http://www.frw.uva.nl/cedro/.

***

8. MEDIA ALERT: PBS Frontline to air "Snitch"

On Tuesday, January 12 at 9pm (check local listings), PBS
will air "Snitch," a 90 minute feature exposing the use and
misuse of confidential informants by the U.S. government.
Frontline will examine how mandatory minimum sentencing
legislation turned the use of informants into the lynchpin
of prosecutorial strategy in the Drug War. Producer Ofra
Bikel takes viewers inside the mind of the informant and
profiles some unsettling cases in which the most minor
offenders are serving harsh prison sentences on the word of
a snitch, while higher-ups, with information to trade, walk
free.

(See our story on a Tenth Circuit Case which could end the
trading of leniency for "the right testimony," at
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/068.html#testimony. Also, see
related articles and editorial in Issue #35, at
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/035.html.)

***

9. EDITORIAL: New Hope in California

Adam J. Smith, DRCNet Associate Director

In California this week, Bill Lockyer, the state's new
Attorney General, will begin the process of trying to figure
out how to implement Proposition 215. Prop. 215 was passed
by the voters of California in 1996, and was supposed
legalize the possession and use of marijuana by patients in
need. The intent of the law has been frustrated, however,
by a combination of the federal government and the former
Attorney General of California, Dan Lungren.

Lungren was an opponent of Prop. 215 even before its
passage. At one point during the campaign, when the popular
comic strip Doonesbury ran a week-long series in support of
the initiative, Lungren used state money to hold a press
conference denouncing the comic and its creator, and urging
the state's newspapers to refuse to run the strip.

In the two years that he held his post after the initiative
was passed, Lungren showed himself willing to go back on his
oath to "uphold the laws of the State of California" by
openly proclaiming and acting upon his intent to interpret
the law "as narrowly as possible." This led to numerous
arrests of legitimate patients and the seizure of their
medicine.

The federal government, for its part, having been thwarted
in its efforts in urging the initiative's defeat, opened
hostilities on December 30, 1996, with a press conference at
which Attorney General Janet Reno threatened to prosecute
and or rescind the prescription privileges of any doctor who
so much as discussed the use of marijuana with his or her
patients. When that threat was deemed to be in violation of
the First Amendment in federal court, a legal assault was
undertaken by the federal government against various
dispensaries of medical marijuana throughout the state.

But now there is Bill Lockyer. Lockyer has been an open
proponent of the right of Californians to access marijuana
for medicinal use. He made no secret of this during his
campaign, and has since reiterated his desire to oversee the
creation and implementation of a system of distribution,
most likely in cooperation with local governments, which
will finally give life to the initiative's 1996 victory.

Whatever the ultimate plan, it is likely to face federal
opposition, and it could very well get ugly. Keep in mind
that the federal government came into Oakland last year and
shut down that city's Cannabis Buyers' Club over the strong
objections of the Mayor and the city council, who had gone
so far as to deputize the club's employees in an effort to
fit them into a loophole in the federal Controlled
Substances Act. Bill Lockyer most assuredly has his work
cut out for him.

One can hope that the victories this past November of
medical marijuana on the ballots of four other states might
temper the feds' enthusiasm for arresting the sick and the
dying, their doctors and their caretakers. But don't bet on
it. The federal government has a lot invested in its
unyielding stance on medicinal marijuana, and it openly
fears that capitulation on this issue will open the door to
reforms in other areas of its cash cow drug war. What we
can legitimately hope is that Bill Lockyer is a man who will
not be easily intimidated, and that California's new
governor, Gray Davis, will stand behind him. We can also
hope that local governments across the state, as well as the
state's legislators, have the stomach to stand up to an
overbearing and overzealous federal government on behalf of
California's voters, or at least for those whose suffering
the federal government would have them ignore.

***

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***

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***

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