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

Steven Dons/MTF Fiasco, 1 year later (A commemorative news release
from Floyd Ferris Landrath of the American Antiprohibition League,
in Portland, says Colleen Waibel, the Portland police officer killed by
Steven Dons during a warrantless break-in by the Marijuana Task Force,
died a meaningless death in a meaningless war.)

Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1999 03:35:17 -0800
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
From: Floyd F Landrath AAL (AAL@InetArena.com)
Subject: Steven Dons/MTF Fiasco, 1 year later

American Antiprohibition League
3125 SE Belmont Street
Portland, Oregon
503/235-4524, fax:503/234-1330
email:AAL@InetArena.com

***

The Steven Dons/MTF Fiasco, 1 Year later:

DEATH OF COP & SUSPECT PART OF ON-GOING DRUG WAR CONSPIRACY
by Floyd Ferris Landrath

Portland, Oregon -- For a year now I've asked myself, 'who
really killed Portland Police Officer Colleen Waibel?'
Here's what I've come up with so far.

The Marijuana Task Force killed Colleen Waibel.
Mayor Vera Katz and the City Council killed Colleen Waibel.
Police Chief Charles Moose killed Colleen Waibel.
District Attorney Michael Schrunk killed Colleen Waibel.
Governor John Kitzhaber killed Colleen Waibel.
Most of the Oregon House & Senate killed Colleen Waibel.
The Oregonian and Portland media killed Colleen Waibel.
Cultural & racial intolerance killed Colleen Waibel.
Marijuana prohibition, the drug war, killed Colleen Waibel.

In many ways both big and small they have all conspired to
kill Colleen Waibel, and in the process our Constitution.
That the late Steven Dons may or may not have fired the fatal
bullet will forever remain a mystery. Carried to his grave,
after his supposed "suicide" while in police custody.

Regardless the District Attorney lead Grand Jury clearance,
and all the police apologists who chimed in, the MTF/Don's
fiasco still leaves a slimy film over the city, similar to
that toothpaste obscuring the camera lens in Don's jail cell.
But even worse, the foreboding realization that it is just a
matter of time until these MTF cowboys screw-up again and get
somebody else killed. Perhaps even another officer, or an
innocent bystander. No one is safe while these guys are
walking around packing heat, hiding behind badges, bogus
warrants and illegal wire-taps.

Few, if any in public life will admit it, much less speak
it but truth be told everyone knows Colleen Waibel died a
meaningless death, in a meaningless war. I defy anyone,
especially her superiors that fateful day, to justify
anybody's death over a few lousy pot plants.

Of course I'm sorry she died, and it is indeed a tragic
loss to her family and friends. The Waibel family is well-
known and respected in this town. But that does not change
the basic fact: Colleen Waibel was not the first and will not
be the last to serve as a blood sacrifice to the false gods
of war; federal, state and local drug war. The same drug war
those named above worship, addicted to its vile mixture of
racism, money, power and corruption.

Incentive? In 1997, the MTF stole $2.3 million from the
houses, cars, other property and assets it seized, mostly
from small personal use growers and tokers. Yet another
example albeit small in comparison, of the vast financial
incentives that have become institutionalized in our, as Noam
Chomsky calls it, "drug war, prison industrial complex." On
a global economic scale we should remember, the illegal drugs
market is now worth more than automobiles and almost as much
as oil.

The MTF is actually a minor functionary, merely following
orders from the biggest drug cartel in the the world, the
U.S. Congress, the Drug Czar and the National Security
Administration (CIA/FBI/DEA/DOJ/DOD...etc.). What a racket:
outlaw drugs then sell them at outrageous profits to help
finance right-wing terrorists who help maintain the proper
order of things, i.e. the rich get richer and the poor get
crack.

I REPEAT: WHAT A RACKET!

How much longer will we tolerate elected officials, such as
those named above, who promote, gleefully enforce and
recklessly overlook the abuses of these insane drug
prohibition laws that clearly do more harm than good?

How long will we allow this drug war conspiracy to go
unchecked? How many more kids and cops will we sacrifice to
the drug war demigods, to heroin or cocaine brought into the
country by our own government?

***

"The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of
those whom they oppress." --
Frederick Douglass (1817-1895, escaped slave, statesman)

***

"If drug abuse is a disease, then drug war is a crime."

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

Drug (Warrior) Reform (Seattle Weekly portrays Chris Hurst,
a veteran King County prohibition agent who is currently a police officer
in Black Diamond, Washington, a newly elected state legislator, and purported
opponent of the war on some drug users. "I've worked at this so long, I've
put the same people in prison three times." That's how Hurst came to realize
he was helping throw money and lives away: "We're going broke, and we're not
dealing with the real problems. It costs a fortune to house someone in
prison, and we're increasing our prison population at an exponential rate.
There's got to be better way." Hurst is among a broad coalition of House
Republicans and Democrats that wants to expand drug courts, which the free
weekly shopper apparently thinks will make the drug war more affordable.)

Date: Wed, 3 Feb 1999 16:47:31 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US WA: Drug (Warrior) Reform
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: John Smith
Pubdate: January 28, 1999
Source: Seattle Weekly (WA)
Copyright: 1999 Seattle Weekly
Contact: letters@seattleweekly.com
Website: http://www.seattleweekly.com/
Forum: http://www.seattleweekly.com/forum/index.html
Author: Eric Scigliano

DRUG (WARRIOR) REFORM

* A cop-turned-legislator joins Olympia's growing movement for drug
treatment and sentencing sanity.

IF the struggle for a saner drug policy needs a poster child, Chris
Hurst seems tailor-made for the role. Hurst knows the fruitless,
destructive collective mania that Richard Nixon dubbed "the War on
Drugs" from the ground up. He's a former King County narcotics
detective and currently a detective on the Black Diamond police force,
and so spends a lot of time apprehending people who use drugs, sell
drugs, and steal and rob to buy drugs. "I've put bad guys in prison
for 19 years," he says. "No one in the world is going to call me soft
on crime. I've worked at this so long, I've put the same people in
prison three times."

And that's how Hurst came to realize he was helping throw money and
lives away: "We're going broke, and we're not dealing with the real
problems. It costs a fortune to house someone in prison, and we're
increasing our prison population at an exponential rate. There's got
to be better way."

Such notions are hardly novel--pointy-headed liberals and raging
libertarians have been voicing them for decades. As Hurst's boss,
Black Diamond Police Cmdr. Glenn Dickson, says, "If it were someone
else saying those things, maybe it wouldn't carry so much weight. But
he speaks with such a depth of experience you have to listen. He's an
awesome, awesome cop."

As of two weeks ago, Hurst is also a state legislator, with a shot at
putting his ideas into action. As a liberal Democrat running against a
well-liked incumbent in a conservative exurban rural district, Hurst
ran on a platform of getting smart, rather than just "tough," on
crime, and expanding drug treatment and other alternatives to prison.
His opponent tried to avoid the subject; as Hurst says, "It's very
difficult to criticize a police officer on any law and justice issue."

Hurst won narrowly, and arrived in Olympia at an opportune moment.
After nearly two decades of determinate sentencing/mandatory
minimum/three strikes/lock 'em up/drug war fervor, a new sort of alarm
is being raised, in Olympia as elsewhere: sheer fiscal terror (and,
for those who bother to think about it, moral outrage) at what locking
'em up is bringing us to. Nearly 2 million Americans are behind
bars--far and away the largest number and the highest percentage among
industrial nations. Washington's state prison population (more than
14,000, including nearly 3,000 drug offenders) is expected to grow by
about 500 per year until 2005 and hit 20,702 by 2013. And officials
are considering renting cells from other states.

These figures don't include about 10,000 prisoners awaiting trial or
serving sentences of less than a year, including most of those
convicted of drug possession; they're consigned to county jails, whose
total population grew by a whopping 16 percent from 1996 to '97, the
last reported years. "The reality is that counties spend 70 percent or
more of their budgets on law enforcement," says Ken Stark, director of
the state's Alcohol and Substance Abuse Division. "Most property
crimes are done to get drugs. At least 70 percent of our inmates had
drug or alcohol problems. To the extent you can get them to stop using
drugs and alcohol, they stop committing crimes."

Since 1994, the King County courts have pioneered a much-praised way
of doing just that. Defendants charged with drug possession are
offered an alternative to the trial-and-jail-or-prison route. They may
waive their defense and all future appeals, and undergo a rigorous
yearlong regimen of drug treatment, testing, counseling, and such
self-betterment as the court may direct in its regular reviews. If
they flunk or quit, they get the full sentence. If they "graduate," as
it's called, they get a big courtroom party with a cake and no record
of the crime.

Spend an hour in drug court and you'll see the full parade of human
misery, hope, and frailty pass before the bench. Judge Nicole McInnes
plays by turns the coach, drill sergeant, and wise auntie as she
orders a ragged, rattled codger to show up on time!, hears a woman
vehemently contest her "bad UAs" (urinalysis readings) and sends her
downstairs for a new test, advises a serious young fellow whose
counselor doesn't respect his religion, and unsuccessfully urges a
sad, streetworn older woman to try drug court instead of shuffling off
to jail. You get the feeling a lot of people have waited a long time
for a little authority and guidance.

FIVE YEARS AGO, drug court was a suspect, vanguard idea. Now eight
other counties have followed King's lead. Cops (not just the Chris
Hursts but the Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs),
prosecutors, and public defenders all praise it--with a new boost from
research. This month the Washington State Institute for Public Policy,
after reviewing 11 drug-court programs around the nation, reported
that they reduced the likelihood of recidivism by a whopping 16
percent. King County drug court manager Mary Taylor reports that after
one year only 9 percent of its grads had been arrested on new felonies
vs. 22 percent of drop-outs and 33 percent of offenders who didn't
participate. This is heckuva deal not only for those who avoid jail
and turn their lives around, but for every taxpayer and potential
crime victim. After crunching the numbers, the WSIPP finds that each
drug-court diversion saves $2,923 in court and jail costs, plus up to
$3,450 in crime losses.

So if drug court is such a bargain, why is it so hard to fund? So far,
federal start-up grants have largely funded all of Washington's drug
courts. But they run out after three or four years; King County is
already scrambling to keep its drug court going. Ken Stark's office
recommended that the state spend $6 million to shore up current drug
courts and start "four or five" new ones, then downsized its request
to $3 million to maintain what's here. But Gov. Gary Locke and the
Department of Social and Health Services budgeted not a penny for drug
courts.

Nothing personal, says Locke aide Dick Van Wagenen: "That's among many good
programs that weren't included. The governor's budget is very tight and
focused on a few big priorities, mainly education." Blame the voters, who
passed Initiative 601, limiting state expenditures; and Referendum 49,
dedicating auto-excise taxes to highways. Nevertheless, Locke's budget
includes $4 million for what Van Wagenen calls a "comprehensive" anti-drug
"education, treatment, and enforcement" effort to "demonstrate what you can
achieve with a major infusion of resources" in Pierce County, which already
may have the state's best-funded and best-organized anti-drug program.

The state (and counties) may also be playing bureaucratic chicken: Wait and
see if the other guy will pay. That's only fair, argues Van Wagenen: "It
appears that the primary savings from the drug courts is for the counties,"
since "very few of the people who would have gone to prison are eligible."
Not so, says Taylor: Of one year's "graduates," 14 percent "were looking at
prison."

County officials tend to see drug treatment as the state's business.
"My commissioners have told me if the county has to pay for it, we
will no longer have a drug court," says Spokane County Judge James
Murphy. That old soft-on-crime bugaboo may also play in: Van Wagenen
says he's heard from some counties where "commissioners don't want
anything to do with drug treatment."

But a broad coalition of House Republicans and Democrats, led by Rep.
Ida Ballasiotes (the previous champion of tough work-release and
sex-offender laws) and including Chris Hurst, has entered a bill that
would expand drug courts and opportunities for drug treatment. House
Bill 1006, due for a hearing this week, would spend $4 million on drug
courts. It would give judges authority to sentence offenders to
specific treatment and rehab regimes as an alternative to jail. And it
would let them consider as "mitigating factors" whether a quantity of
drugs sold was tiny and the seller was a low-level flunky.

This is meant to correct a cruel and costly inequity. As Hurst says,
"An addict who goes to the Bon Marche and steals $1,000 worth of suits
probably won't get any jail time. If that same addict sells a 10th of
a gram of cocaine to get a 10th of a gram, the standard sentencing
range is 21 to 27 months in prison." A judge could sentence that poor
schmuck to treatment rather than $50,000 worth of state hospitality.
Controversial as this measure is, Spokane County Judge Tari Eitzen
says it may be dispensable: "We already have the statutory discretion
under case law"--though many judges don't use it.

So far, drug court is only available to druggies who happen to get
caught holding. But why wouldn't it work as well when the same people
get caught selling or stealing? Hurst looks forward to more eruptions
of sanity: "This is the first stage in a long transition in the way we
deal with crime and drug abuse."

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

Marvin Chavez sentencing tomorrow, Jan. 29 (A list subscriber
asks supporters of the medical-marijuana patient/activist and founder
of the Orange County Cannabis Co-op to attend the court Friday morning
at Orange County Superior Court in Westminster, California.)

Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1999 01:06:52 EST
Sender: friends@freecannabis.org
From: WBritt420@aol.com
To: Multiple recipients of list (friends@freecannabis.org)
Subject: Re: marvin?

Marvin's sentencing is set for 8:00 Friday, Jan. 29th at Westminister Muni
Court at 13th and Beach Blvd. For further info call Marvin's Pager/Vm #
714-207-3724.

We are trying to get as many people to show up as possible. Spread the word.

Bill

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

Letter from Dave Herrick (A list subscriber forwards a letter
from the California medical-marijuana martyr sentenced by Orange County
to four years in prison after being denied a Proposition 215 defense. Herrick
notes, among other things, that Blacks Law Dictionary defines a "care giver"
as an individual, organization, or entity. Herrick and his lawyers are asking
reformers to write letters to California media publicizing his appeal.)

Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1999 22:38:02 -0800
To: dpfca@drugsense.org
From: "Tom O'Connell" (tjeffoc@sirius.com)
Subject: DPFCA: Letter from Dave Herrick
Sender: owner-dpfca@drugsense.org
Reply-To: dpfca@drugsense.org
Organization: DrugSense http://www.drugsense.org/dpfca/

I've just rec'd a long letter from David Herrick who is presently serving a
4 yr term in CA State Prison (New Soledad) and is up to speed on the arrest
of the Kubbys and disappointed in the non-response of Bill Lockyer.

Ironically Lockyer, as AG, is technically opposing Herrick's appeal, an
appeal which will be heard by the 4th (CA) District this Spring. David and
his lawyers have decided to appeal to the reform community for publicity;
I'll let him tell you in his own words:

"Alan Bock, senior editor of the Orange County register, is our best bet.
Get him to run editorials on my case coming up before the fourth district.
In the past, he has lambasted both judges and Carl Armbrust in both my case
and Marvin's.

I've got this feeling that the justices in the Fourth are going to be my
ticket out of here. And I'll tell you why. First of all, the Orange
County Register is the most conservative newspaper in the most conservative
County in Southern California and they (the paper) have gone out of their
way reminding people that 54 percent orange County voters voted yes on Prop
15. That 56 percent of voters statewide voted on it and approved it. And
the editorials have denounced Armbrust and Judge Froeberg's handling of my
case and written extensive editorials of my case Marvin's case's and the
failure to implement to 15 statewide, etc.

Second the new DA is a former Superior Court Judge who opposes jailing
"drug offenders" for mere possession, transportation, buying or furnishing
(with the exception of minors of course). The new sheriff wants drug
offenders placed elsewhere other than jail; Lockyer wants to see 215
implemented.

Third Oakland B.C. has received new operating conditions and Lockyer has
said his department will not pursue closing down any quote buyers clubs"
already in existence or operating with acceptable guidelines.

[snip]

According to the Heritage and Blacks Law Dictionary, a "care giver" can be
an individual, an organization, or an entity. (O.C. Cannabis co-op was
anorganization, Marvin Chavez and Dave Herrick are individuals who are both
bona fide patients who legally entitled to those marijuana. The
worst case we should have been charged with his "furnishing" our medicine
to someone else. (I.e. I ran out of Darvocets, can I have one of yours?)

If we inundate the Orange County press (Register O.C. Weekly, L.A. Times
Orange County Edition, etc.) I'm certain to justices will not only read
them, but being the politicals that they are, they will take the following
into consideration:

First, Judge Breyer has thrown the ball back into the court of the federal
prosecutor in the Oakland, et al case, in Trippet the the appellate has
ruled that some transportation is necessary, and "Peron," a distribution
in lieu of cultivating one's own is feasible when one cannot cultivate
their own for whatever reason. (I hope my reading glasses get here soon!).
Second, and most important wall, this is the same court that stayed my
trial for nine weeks and ruled that if I won the their would be no need for
the peel and if I lost by can always re-file my appeal. This is also the
same court granted might have its motion and expedited my oral arguments to
March or April.

Third the AG's response was only 17 pages, poorly written, and completely
omitted the 215 distribution defense and argued the necessity issue for 14
pages and prosecutorial misconduct for 3. I'll be curious as to how she
argues in court. I feel that this court sees something in this issue. The
fourth is none to overturn many voter verdicts from Orange County Superior
Court. And my trial law are also so that you get great appeal and lousy
trial and Orange County courts.

Steve calls the fourth DCA the best appellate in all of California and I
can't help of feel that this is the court were "we," all those involved in
this effort will finally receive the justice that has eluding us for so
long. Regardless of who sets precedent, one of us has to!!

Again a massive effort on the part of all of of DPFCA, NORML and anyone
who gives two cents about this issue will be greatly appreciated. Steve,
unlike Sharon Petrosino, wants as much publicity as we can generate.
However I caution you as to what you mention. I'm in a 200 man dorm and
inmates here receive the Orange County Register, L.A. Times Sun Telegram,
Long Beach Tribune etc. so "activist case reaches appellate court" etc. but
let's not harp on the LEO aspect I am open to major problems if such info
were made available.

Again, go for it- do what you feel is right I trust your judgment and I
have faith in your ability to spread the word. I hope that Marvin fares
better than what he could receive, but knowing Orange County, he'll be
lucky to get 5 and could expect to get at least 7 or 8. I hope not, but who
knows?

That's why press and media awareness of this issue is so damn important.
We're not your run-of-the-mill "drug dealers" but the then again who was
dealing drugs? You know that this is a travesty of justice, I know any sane
rational reasonable person knows that too!! "

[snip]

For those of you who are going to write, I'll post a summary of the
terrible thing that have been done to Dave to punish him for his honesty,
dedication and humanity. He is really the forgotten victim.

Please note Dave's request not to mention his status as a former LEO if you
do write. This is critically important to his safety in state prison!!

Tomorrow is when Marvin Chavez is due to be sentenced for felony possession
& sale; it will be a good opportunity to write and to mention Herrick, who
was associated with Chavez and received the same outrageous OC Justice at
the hands of a punitive DA (Armbrust, since retired).

Tom O'Connell

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

David Herrick's Address (A list subscriber urges you also to write
to the incarcerated California medical-marijuana patient himself.)

Subject: DPFCA: David Herrick's Address
To: dpfca@drugsense.org
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 17:38:46 -0800 (PST)
From: bob@rush.com (Bob Ames)
Reply-To: dpfca@drugsense.org

need to put Dave Herrick in touch with Dana & Jason Taub.
Dave sends his regards to all.

Dave Herrick's was moved around a month ago and his new address is:

He can be written, sent news, (and, he says, visited) at:

David Herrick P-06857
Salinas Valley State Prison
E-2-114
PO Box 1070
Soledad, CA 93960-1070

Dave needs all of the support he can get. He gets really lonely in
prison and loves it when people write to him.

Things which are good to include in your letter:

*) Up to 5 stamps and envelopes, but they can't be "stamped envelopes"
from the Post office, those are rejected by prison authorities. (why?)

*) A United States Postal Money Order, with DAVID HERRICK P06857 clearly
written on *each* edge of the Postal Money Order. (why?)

*) A little letter or press release. Just one of these go a long way
toward making Dave's horrible ordeal just a little more bearable.

Anyway, I urge you to just take a few minutes to let Dave know that
you're thinking of him. Note that "letters from prisoners" are
automatically confiscated during unlawful breakins/searches of medical
patients homes by authorities.

Bob Ames
bob@rush.com

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

Advocates Of Marijuana Legalization Split And End Rift (The Blade,
in Toledo, Ohio, says the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana
Laws will resolve a rift in the northwest Ohio chapter of the grass-roots
organization by splitting the group. One will be in Toledo, and the other
will remain in Port Clinton.)

Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1999 13:52:17 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US OH: Advocates Of Marijuana Legalization Split And End Rift
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Richard Lake
Source: The Blade (Toledo, OH)
Copyright: 1999 The Blade
Pubdate: Thu, 28 Jan 1999
Page: 18
Website: http://www.toledoblade.com/
Contact: letters@theblade.com
Author: Mike Tressler, Blade Staff Writer

ADVOCATES OF MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION SPLIT AND END RIFT

PORT CLINTON - A rift in a grass-roots organization that advocates
legalizing marijuana has been resolved by splitting the group down the middle.

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws will have two
chapters in northwest Ohio: One will be in Toledo, and the other will
remain in Port Clinton.

It's the result of the disagreement between two factions on the board of
the 100-member Port Clinton chapter. The decision was reached when the two
sparring factions met Monday with Toledo lawyer Spiros Cocoves, who was
hired to mediate the dispute, said Keith Stroup of Washington, founder and
executive director of NORML.

The chapter known as NORML of Sandusky Valley was split by the dispute
among board members. Some favored high-profile President Tomas Salazar,
others wanted to oust him.

The conflict caused Mr. Salazar to vacate the group's Port Clinton office,
taking furniture and office equipment with him. Mr. Salazar remained apart
until Monday's mediation.

The factions "realized they could not work together, so they put the
conflict behind them and will move forward as two groups," Mr. Stroup said.

Mr. Salazar will head the Port Clinton chapter. "It's not clear who will
lead the Toledo group, which includes the rebels who challenged Mr.
Salazar's leadership," Mr. Stroup said.

The Toledo group will apply for affiliate status, Mr. Stroup said. Both
groups will start over, with the Ottawa County organization's charter held
in abeyance until NORML is satisfied that it will hold regular meetings and
submit new bylaws.

Mr. Salazar could not be reached for comment.

Mr. Stroup said that personality conflicts, not policy differences, were to
blame for the dispute that split the Sandusky Valley chapter in half.

There will now be three chapters of NORML in Ohio. The Northcoast NORML is
in Cleveland.

The Sandusky Valley chapter was established in 1990. Over the years, it
organized an annual Harvest Festival and won a bitter fight with the state
to participate in the "Adopt-A-Highway" program.

NORML was founded by Mr. Stroup in 1970 and is the country's leading
advocate for legalizing marijuana use. It seeks to decriminalize the
smoking and marketing of the drug. Local chapters explain that position
with speakers, letters to newspaper editors, and visits to congressional
representatives, Mr. Stroup said. "It's a grass-roots approach to politics,
and we can't do that from Washington," he said.

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

Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies, Year 5, No. 4 (A summary of European and international drug policy news, from CORA in Italy)

Date: Sun, 31 Jan 1999 15:35:08 +0100
To: CORAFax (cora.belgique@agora.stm.it)
From: CORA Belgique (cora.belgique@agora.stm.it)
Subject: CORAFax #4 (EN)
Sender: owner-hemp@efn.org

ANTIPROHIBITIONIST OF THE ENTIRE WORLD ....
Year 5 #4, Juanuary 28 1999

***

Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies
Edited by the CORA - Radical Antiprohibitionist Coordination, federated to
- TRP-Transnational Radical Party (NGO, consultive status, I)
- The Global Coalition for Alternatives to the Drug War

***

director: Vincenzo Donvito
All rights reserved

***

http://www.agora.stm.it/coranet
mailto:cora.news@agora.stm.it

CORA NEWS

ITALY - THE FIRST HUNDRED DAYS OF THE D'ALEMA GOVERNMENT
They have been worst than the whole two years of the preceding Government,
also a left- wing one. The D'Alema Government chooses not to see the
effects of prohibitionism, chooses not to hear the many requests of new
policies, does not act promptly and is ignorant about the drug question in
general.

***

NEWS FROM THE WORLD

***

000465 23/01/99
E.U. / ITALY
ADDICTION
IL SOLE 24 ORE

The State and the Regions have agreed to find new ways of fighting drugs
(including the new synthetic ones), thruogh rehabilitation and prevention,
and by using public and private funds.

***

000463 24/01/99
AMERICA / USA
HEALTH
CORRIERE DELLA SERA

A research of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimora says that
even one pill of ecstasy can damage the central nervous systyem.

***

000464 29/01/99
HEALTH
PANORAMA

The magazine New Scientist says that using drugs alters our immunity
defenses. If this is true of heroin, alcohol and marijuana, it is still not
quite clear what cocaine and ecstasy do, these drugs being at one time
stimulants and inhibitors.

***

000468 26/01/99
E.U. / SPAIN
INITIATIVE
EL PAIS

'Iniciativa per Catalunya - Verds' has presented a project for depenalising
consumption of hashish. According to them it is enough to change an
ambiguous phrase in the law on drugs, which says that consumption of a
moderate quantity is tolerated whilst detention is punished.

***

000458 21/01/99
E.U. / SPAIN
JURISPRUDENCE
EL PAIS

A year in prison and a 700 peseta fine have been inflicted to a person for
having sold 2 grams of hashish. Spanish lawyers consider this sentence of
the Provincial Court totally out of prorportion with the crime.

***

000467 26/01/99
E.U. / FRANCE
JURISPRUDENCE
LE FIGARO

The Minister of health, Bernard Kouchner, says that cannabis users should
be punished with a simple fine. The magistrates of the Court of Nanterre
are instead still in favour of penal sanctions.

***

000459 28/01/99
E.U. / ITALY
JUSTICE
PANORAMA

The volume of business that circulates around drug traffic is esteemed to
be of abt. 50 thousand billion lire. These, put together with the 30-40
thousand billion lire made thruogh prostitution and the 20 thousand of
various other illegal activities, represent 7% of Italy's national internal
product.

***

000469 26/01/99
E.U.
MARKET
FRANKFURTER

Kat is a drug that is used almost exclusively by Africans and Yemenites. It
is legal in Holland and illegal in Germany.In fact the German frontier
officers have great difficulty in stopping its entrance from Holland.

***

000461 22/01/99
E.U. / FRANCE
PREVENTION
LIBERATION

The new anti drugs and anti AIDS campaign that is being planned by the
Government will be based more on real life facts and authentic testimonies
rather than on vague slogans or stereotypes.

***

000462 27/01/99
ASIA / BURMA
PRODUCERS
LE NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR

The fourth Interpol Conference on Heroin will take place in Burma, which is
the first world producer of opium since the military have been in power.
Indeed a good image boost for the Burma dictatorship.

***

000460 21/01/99
E.U. / GERMANY
PRVENTION
FRANKFURTER

The opposition criticises the Government for having stopped supporting the
'No power to drugs' campaign. They suspect that Ministries involved are
planning to legalise hashish.

***

000466 28/01/99
E.U. / ITALY
TRAFFIC
L'ESPRESSO

The new Albanese mafia now controls crime in the streets of Milan,
including robberies, prostitution and heroin traffic. In order to finance
the civil war in Albania, they work in agreement with the Sicilian and
Calabrese mafia. These are declarations of Adriatic H, an Albanese boss who
has decided to collaborate with the police.

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

[End]