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

Alaska Law Allows Marijuana Use (The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, in
Wisconsin, notes the medical marijuana law approved last November by nearly
60 percent of voters went into effect last week. Alaska is the sixth state
to offer a legal shield to people who smoke the weed for a short list of
medical ailments.)

Date: Sun, 7 Mar 1999 17:00:57 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US AK: MMJ: Alaska Law Allows Marijuana Use
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: March 07, 1999
Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI)
Copyright: 1999, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Contact: jsedit@onwis.com
Fax: 414-224-8280
Website: http://www.jsonline.com/
Forum: http://www.jsonline.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimate.cgi

ALASKA LAW ALLOWS MARIJUANA USE

State Is The Sixth To Legalize Drug To Treat Specified Medical Ailments

Juneau, Alaska -- Alaska's medical marijuana law went into effect last
week, offering a legal shield to people who smoke the weed for a short
list of medical ailments.

Nearly 60% of the voters in the November election favored the measure,
which allows marijuana use for ailments including cancer, AIDS,
glaucoma, chronic pain, seizures and muscle spasms, provided the
patient has a doctor's recommendation.

The law allows patients to grow limited amounts of marijuana and
protects doctors who recommend it.

Growing, selling or using marijuana for recreational purposes remains
illegal, and marijuana still is classified with heroin and LSD under
federal law.

However, a bill introduced in Congress last week would set aside the
federal ban on marijuana in the states that have approved its use:
Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona and Nevada.

"What we need to do to get marijuana into the hands of people
suffering is to set aside the federal controls on marijuana, so the
states can determine this issue for themselves," said the bill's
sponsor, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.).

Frank's legislation would reclassify marijuana as a Schedule II drug,
meaning that it could be prescribed by doctors under certain
conditions, just as cocaine and other controlled substances are.
Prescriptions for such drugs are subject to federal and state review.

Although the Alaska law calls for identification cards that medical
marijuana users could show to fend off arrest, the Department of
Health and Social Services is not yet accepting applications for a
registry of qualified patients.

Even without a card, the law will provide a defense if people are
arrested for using medical marijuana. Patients will be allowed to keep
1 ounce of marijuana, or grow six plants, including three flowering
plants.

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

Minnesota Legislature Ponders Medical Marijuana Measure (UPI says Austin
state senator Pat Piper, who was diagnosed with cancer in 1987, has
introduced a bill to permit the limited use of marijuana as medicine.)

Date: Sun, 7 Mar 1999 18:37:15 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US MN: Wire: Minnesota Legislature Ponders Medical Marijuana
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: 7 Mar 1999
Source: United Press International
Copyright: 1999 United Press International
Note: Headline by MAP Editor

MINNESOTA LEGISLATURE PONDERS MEDICAL MARIJUANA MEASURE

(Saint Paul) A bill to legalize the medical use of marijuana is before
legislators this session. The bill would allow doctors to prescribe small
amounts of marijuana to treat diseases such as cancer, HIV, AIDS, glaucoma,
Crohn's disease, and cerebal palsy. The bill is sponsored by Austin state
Senator Pat Piper...who was diagnosed with cancer in 1987 and while she
never used marijuana to help her condition she says she understands how
sick people can get. She's now in remission. The conservative Minnesota
Family Council opposes the bill, saying the medical benefits of marijuana
have never been proven.

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

Agriculture Chief's Son Arrested In Methamphetamine Raid (An Associated Press
story in the Rockford Register Star says Christopher Hampton, the son of the
director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture, was arrested Friday by
state and federal agents who were searching the home of another man accused
of manufacturing methamphetamine. Hampton was accused of supplying anhydrous
ammonia from the family farm. Joe Hampton, Christopher's father, wept as his
handcuffed son was led away.)

Date: Sun, 7 Mar 1999 18:27:21 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US IL: Agriculture Chief's Son Arrested In Methamphetamine Raid
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: M. Simon
Pubdate: 7 Mar 1999
Source: Rockford Register Star (IL)
Copyright: 1999 Rockford Register Star
Contact: talktome@wwa.com
Website: http://www.rrstar.com/
Fax: 815-987-1365
Section: C - Local, Page 6
Author: Associated Press

AGRICULTURE CHIEF'S SON ARRESTED IN METHAMPHETAMINE RAID

SPRINGFIELD --- A methamphetamine raid has led to the arrest of the son of
the Illinois Department of Agriculture, authorities say.

Christopher Hampton, 30, of rural Shelby County, was arrested Friday by
state and federal agents who were searching the home of another man accused
of manufacturing the illegal drug.

Hampton was accused of supplying chemicals from the family farm for drug
production.

Methamphetamine can be made from over-the-counter products such as cold
medicine and household cleaners. Anhydrous ammonia - a common though
dangerous farm chemical - is another ingredient.

Hampton and 43-year-old George Songer, who was also arrested, were brought
to U.S. District Court in Springfield, where they were told that federal
prosecutors will be seeking felony charges of conspiring to manufacture and
the manufacturing of a controlled substance.

Joe Hampton, who was appointed state agriculture director in January by
Gov. George Ryan, sat with his wife Anne, in the second row of the
dourtroom during the half-hour hearing. He wept as his handcuffed son was
led away, patting him on the shoulder as he passed.

"We love our son very much" Joe Hampton said later. "We don't believe this
is happening."

He declined further comment.

An affidavit supplied by the U.S. attorney's office contends that
Christopher Hampton was supplying Songer with anhydrous ammonia from tanks
on the Hampton family farm. In exchange for the chemical, Songer would give
Hampton an eighth of the methamphetamine produced.

Both Christopher Hampton and Songer are scheduled to be in federal court
Tuesday morning for a hearing to determine wether they can be released on
bail while the case proceeds.

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

Campus Activists Hit Law Stripping Aid From Drug Offenders (The Boston Globe
says New Hampshire Youth Mobilization, a group based at the University of New
Hampshire, in Durham, that focuses on social justice issues, will work to
repeal a provision of the U.S. Higher Education Act of 1998 that denies or
delays federal education grants, loans or subsidized job opportunities to
any student convicted of possessing or selling "drugs," particularly
marijuana. New Hampshire student activists say the law is punitive and
discriminates against less affluent students. The Drug Reform Coordination
Network, in Washington, D.C., is organizing students across the country to
lobby Congress to repeal the provision, charging that it turns the nation's
drug war into "a war on student access to higher education.")

Date: Sun, 7 Mar 1999 18:26:46 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US NH: Campus Activists Hit Law Stripping Aid From Drug
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: emr@javanet.com (Dick Evans)
Pubdate: 7 Mar 1999
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.
Contact: letters@globe.com
Website: http://www.boston.com/globe/
Author: Clare Kittredge, Globe Correspondent

CAMPUS ACTIVISTS HIT LAW STRIPPING AID FROM DRUG OFFENDERS

DURHAM - Steven Diamond is no champion of drug abuse. Still, the outspoken
University of New Hampshire senior is bothered by a new law that strips
federal education dollars from college students convicted of doing drugs.

''I'm not saying people should do drugs,'' said Diamond, a member of New
Hampshire Youth Mobilization, a campus group focusing on social justice
issues. It's just that taking away a student's aid money isn't the answer,
he argued. A provision of the Higher Education Act of 1998 is provoking
anger among some New Hampshire student activists who say it is punitive and
discriminates against less affluent students.

The law denies or delays federal education grant, loan or subsidized job
opportunities for any student convicted of owning or selling drugs under
federal or state law.

The measure, signed into law last fall, is touted by politicians as a way
to get tough on drugs. Federal Department of Education enforcement
guidelines are expected later this month.

But campus critics here contend that it is misguided. And a
Washington-based group organizing students across the country to lobby
Congress for its repeal charges that it turns the nation's drug war into
''a war on student access to higher education.'' ''We're enforcing the drug
war against the poor,'' objects Adam Smith, associate director of the Drug
Reform Coordination Network. UNH sophomore Alice Crocker is state student
coordinator of Amnesty International, which has six college and 14 high
school groups across New Hampshire. ''I'm a `straight-edge' and I don't
think anyone needs to take in any foreign substance into their body,'' said
Crocker, using slang to describe someone who does not use drugs or alcohol.

Careful not to judge her peers, Crocker said: ''Abusing drugs is a sympton
of feeling alienated and not understanding yourself, and taking away money
is not the solution. The solution is raising kids to understand themselves.
All this punishment doesn't focus on the problem. It focuses on making kids
pay.'' Diamond accuses some politicians of forgetting their own youthful
drug indiscretions. ''Some of the same people who made these laws - Newt
Gingrich, Bill Clinton, multiple key politicians - have already smoked pot
themselves,'' Diamond said. ''Now they want to take away your financial aid
so you can't get an education ... It's really hypocritical.'' Just how long
the new law deprives a student of federal education money depends on the
offense: one year for first-time drug possession, two years for the
second-time drug possession or first-time drug sale, and indefinitely from
then on. A student can apply for money back earlier by going through a drug
rehabilitation program and two random drug tests over six months.

But critics say that is too time-consuming and fails to take into account
the lack of publicly funded treatment programs, again penalizing students
who are not affluent. They also say the new measure doesn't look at
circumstances surrounding the offense or even what drug was involved.
National statistics show that more than half of high school seniors admit
to having used some sort of controlled substance at one time. ''That's a
problem we're concerned about,'' said Adam Smith. ''But we don't believe
putting obstacles in the way to college is the way to deal with it.''

Marijuana remains the drug of choice among the young, he said. ''The
overwhelming majority of young people convicted of drug offenses are found
guilty of simple drug possession. Our answer as a society is we'll make it
more difficult for young people to educate themselves? And because aid is
need-based, the penalty will only apply to poor and moderate-income
students.'' Another issue is whether the punishment fits the crime. While
some students need drug treatment, Smith said that, for many, ''marijuana
possession doesn't mean you need drug treatment any more than an
18-year-old caught with a beer means they're alcoholic.'' Lisa Harrison, a
spokeswoman for Senator Bob Smith, points out that the Higher Education Act
won near unanimous approval in the Senate because its main thrust was ''to
increase higher education funding.'' ''The reason Senator Smith supported
the bill is it lowered the student loan rate, increased Pell grants,
creates a loan-forgiveness program for students who obtain work in the
child-care industry or gain teaching jobs in school districts that serve
low-income children, and increased the work-study program,'' she said.

But because the senator favors ''a strong antidrug message,'' Harrison said
''this provision is certainly one facet of [the higher education act] which
he believes will help get drug use and drug abuse under control.'' Not all
New Hampshire college students are up in arms about the new law. A brief
check at Dartmouth College, for example, yielded no student activists
willing to make public statements about the issue.

And UNH sophomore Fred Thornton, student senator for Tau Kappa Epsilon,
applauds the measure as ''an attempt to curtail the rising drug problem in
the country.'' ''If you're doing drugs, you're not in a situation where you
can really learn,'' said Thornton, a member of the university's Drug
Advisory Council. ''You need to take time off and find a solution to your
problems.'' And realistically, the new law may not affect many students.
For example at UNH, there were 36 arrests for drug possession in 1997, said
Bill Fischer, UNH associate director of student life. In 1996, the figure
was 31. ''We're looking at a relatively small number in relation to a
student population of roughly 10,000,'' said Fischer, who runs the UNH
Judicial Programs Office.

But while the university has a ''zero tolerance'' policy for drug use, most
typical first drug possession offenses do not block students from pursuing
their education.

Fischer said a typical first-time sanction for drug possession in a
residence hall could be eviction from the dorms and disciplinary probation,
plus a referral to health services. A subsequent offense would most likely
lead to separation from the university for a period of time, he said.
Critics say the new law is another story.

One UNH student said she got a close look at US drug policies a while back
when a friend was denied a federally funded environmental job in New
Hampshire because of a past drug offense.

''I think it unfairly discriminates against people who might have had
problems when they were younger,'' said the student, who did not want to be
identified. ''It's a stage. This is obviously a time in most people's lives
when they experiment ... Most college students should be taken off campus
to a halfway house for their alcohol problem.'' For Diamond, the issue
brings to mind famed children's activist Marian Wright Edelman, founder of
the Children's Defense Fund. At a rally for the nation's children several
years ago, Edelman told a huge crowd: ''Some of our children are tracked
for Princeton and Yale, and some of our children are tracked for prison and
jail.''

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

Welfare Law May Limit Addiction Recovery (The Standard-Times, in New Bedford,
Massachusetts, says a wrinkle in the 1994 federal welfare reform law has
prevented some people from receiving substance abuse treatment and may
jeopardize the existence of some recovery programs. The law bars states from
providing cash assistance and food stamps to anyone convicted of a
drug-related felony. But many drug treatment programs depend on benefits such
as food stamps and welfare cash payments to help pay for treatment.)

Date: Sun, 7 Mar 1999 18:37:16 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US MA: Welfare Law May Limit Addiction Recovery
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: John Smith
Pubdate: 7 Mar 1999
Source: Standard-Times (MA)
Copyright: 1999 The Standard-Times
Contact: YourView@S-T.com
Website: http://www.s-t.com/
Author: Polly Saltonstall, Standard-Times staff writer

WELFARE LAW MAY LIMIT ADDICTION RECOVERY

A wrinkle in the federal welfare reform law has prevented some drug addicts
from receiving substance abuse treatment and may jeopardize the existence
of some recovery programs, local drug counselors say.

The law bars states from providing cash assistance and food stamps to
anyone convicted of a drug-related felony.

But many drug treatment programs depend on benefits such as food stamps and
welfare cash payments to help pay for treatment, said Kym Barboza-Owens,
director of the YWCA of Southeastern Massachusetts' Women's Collaborative
Project. The YWCA runs a program called Reunion House that reunites
recovering addicts with their children.

"When someone who wants to get treatment and make something of their life
cannot get help, it's like a slap in the face," Ms. Barboza-Owens said.
"Folks caught in the cycle of addiction need these benefits to help pay for
the roof over their head while they seek help and treatment."

The 1994 federal welfare reform law bars states from providing cash
assistance and food stamps to anyone convicted for drug offenses after Aug.
22, 1996 -- when the federal bill was signed into law. No one is exempt
from the ban, including people participating in drug treatment or pregnant
women. The ban applies only to cash welfare assistance and food stamps, not
to Medicaid or other federal benefits.

Ms. Barboza-Owens and a handful of other local treatment providers raised
the issue Friday during a breakfast meeting with state Rep. Antonio F.D.
Cabral, who promised to work with the group on finding solutions. Mr.
Cabral was the only local legislator who showed up at legislative breakfast
in honor of Women's Addiction Week.

Although states may choose to drop the drug-felony welfare ban,
Massachusetts has not.

A spokesman for the Department of Transitional Assistance said he does not
know how many people have been affected by the law.

Spokesman Dick Powers said the provision depends on clients to provide
information about past convictions. Although the state does not do
background checks, anyone caught lying might be required to reimburse the
state for benefits, he said.

As of last summer, Connecticut, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma and Rhode Island
had lifted the ban. Another 19 states either had, or planned to modify the
ban to exempt some people, such as those enrolled in treatment programs,
according to the Legal Action Center, a New York-based advocacy organization.

"The ban has had an number of unintended consequences and does not do much
to promote recovery among past offenders or help them regain
self-sufficiency," said Robb Cowie, the center's director of state policy.
"In the end, it denies treatment to a lot of people who need it."

The ban could have a huge impact on transitional houses in New Bedford by
forcing them to absorb more costs, just at a time when the city needs them
most, said Florence Choate, executive director of Project Coach. Ms.
Choate's program provides job training and counseling and works with people
on probation.

Cindy Guy, house case manager at WRAP House, a 14-bed transitional home in
New Bedford for women recovering from drug addictions, knows the problem
only too well. WRAP House depends on food stamps and welfare payments to
help pay for its programs, she said.

"We can only have so many women come into the house that are not eligible
for food stamps," she said. "If I have six women applying and none are
eligible, obviously I cannot take all six."

Other area transitional and half-way houses have faced similar dilemmas,
she said.

Ms. Guy tries to help those she cannot serve by referring them to other
programs, but she knows some of those people may end up back on the streets.

"There are some women who cannot get treatment because of this," she said.

"And these days, it's rare to find anybody with a drug addiction who
doesn't have some type of felony conviction. Addicts do a lot of things to
get their drugs."

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

Less Crime, More Criminals (New York Times columnist Timothy Egan ponders
America's inability to control its prison-industrial complex. Later this
month, the U.S. Justice Department will release new figures showing that 2
million people - one of every 150 people in the United States - is in prison
or jail - omitting approximately 5 million additional people under house
arrest, or on probation or parole. With the crime rate having fallen for six
straight years, by all logic, prisons should be experiencing a few vacancies.
But because the war on some drug users has failed to reduce the use of
supposedly controlled substances, a prison peace dividend is nowhere in
sight. Instead, the guessing game now is: At what point does the world's
largest penal system hit a plateau - 2.5 million inmates, 3 million? Cleaning
up after a crusade, some lawmakers say, has proven much harder than they
anticipated. Edwin Meese, attorney general under President Reagan, has
started to look favorably on treatment for low-level offenders rather than
jail. "I think mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders ought to be
reviewed," said Meese.)

Date: Sun, 7 Mar 1999 18:26:40 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: Less Crime, More Criminals
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Marcus/Mermelstein Family and Dick Evans
Pubdate: 7 Mar 1999
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 1999 The New York Times Company
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Forum: http://forums.nytimes.com/comment/
Author: Timothy Egan

LESS CRIME, MORE CRIMINALS

Later this month, the U.S. government will release new figures showing how
many Americans are behind bars, and the numbers will reveal that the bull
market for prisons is still charging ahead. Nearly 1 of every 150 people in
the United States is in prison or jail, the Justice Department will
announce, a figure that no other democracy comes close to matching.

Soon, the total number of people locked up in federal and state prisons and
local jails will likely reach the 2 million mark, almost double the number
a decade ago, as the ranks of prisoners grow enough each year -- to fill
Yankee Stadium and then some. For an American born this year, the chance of
living some part of life in a correction facility is 1 in 20; for black
Americans, it is 1 in 4.

Most experts failed to predict that the inmate population would triple from
1980, and now nobody seems to know how to stop the buildup. By all logic,
prisons should be experiencing a few vacancies, and the cost of arresting,
prosecuting and putting away an army of criminals should be at ebb. After
all, the economy could hardly be better, and crime has fallen steeply six
years in a row. But a prison peace dividend is nowhere in sight.

Instead, the guessing game now is: At what point does the world's largest
penal system hit a plateau -- 2.5 million inmates, 3 million? Surely, if
crime continues to fall, the number of new prisoners must also fall.

Not quite. No matter how much crime plummets, the United States will still
have to add the equivalent of a new 1,000-bed jail or prison every week --
for perhaps another decade, federal officials say. Some even believe the
prison boom could be permanent, at least for another generation.

A big reason is that so many of the new inmates are drug offenders. In the
federal system, nearly 60 percent of all people behind bars are doing time
for drug violations; in state prisons and local jails, the figure is 22
percent. These numbers are triple the rate of 15 years ago.

Americans do not use more drugs, on average, than people in other nations;
but the United States, virtually alone among Western democracies, has
chosen a path of incarceration for drug offenders. More than 400,000 people
are behind bars for drug crimes -- and nearly a third of them are locked up
for simply possessing an illicit drug.

"America's internal gulag," is what Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the nation's drug
czar, calls the expanding mass of drug inmates. Many of those have
committed any number of crimes. But a growing number of them have broken no
laws other than the ones on drug use.

In the 1980s, Congress and the states passed drug laws that required judges
to put people in prison -- even first-time offenders, or those caught with
small amounts of an illicit substance. Mandatory minimum sentences, as they
are called, leave no room for a judge to consider special circumstances, or
options such as treatment instead of jail.

The idea was that more arrests would lead to more convictions, which would
put more people in jail, and the crime rate would fall. That did happen.

Another dividend was supposed to be a drop in drug use, but that has not
happened. Arrests of people who use drugs just hit an all-time high, the
FBI reported. At the same time, drug use has gone up among the young, and
for drugs like heroin or methamphetamines. Over all, drug use has not
budged for 10 years. For virtually all other crimes, of course, the figures
are stunning -- with huge drops in murder, robbery and assault. Whether
this is because the United States will soon have 2 million people locked up
is subject to much debate.

But many of the authorities who argue that the prison boom has taken the
worst criminals out of circulation -- and has thus been the biggest factor
in reducing crime -- are at a loss to explain the drug-use figures.

"I am in favor of the federal government ceasing and desisting the war on
drugs," said Dr. Morgan Reynolds, director of the Criminal Justice Center
at the Dallas branch of the National Center for Policy Analysis, a
free-market think tank.

He described himself as being on the conservative side of the debate over
prisons and crime; he says the crime drop can be directly attributed to the
prison boom.

But he is less sure that the federal government's war on drugs has an
effect on crime rates and drug use.

For liberals and libertarians who have long claimed incarceration has
failed to do anything but run up the bill in the drug war, conservative
cover is welcome. Last week, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., introduced a bill
to restore discretion for judges in sentencing low-level, nonviolent drug
offenders.

"We may be getting to the point of diminishing returns -- the more you
expand the prison system, the more small fry you put in there," said Marc
Mauer, assistant director of the Sentencing Project, a nonprofit group that
has been critical of the prison buildup.

Even some of the architects of punitive drug policies now argue that
stuffing the prisons with ever more drug offenders is not a wise
investment. Edwin Meese, who was attorney general under President Ronald
Reagan, when most of the drug laws were rewritten, has started to look
favorably on treatment for low-level offenders rather than jail.

"I think mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders ought to be
reviewed," said Meese in an interview. "We have to see who has been
incarcerated and what has come from it."

Beyond the laws that send drug offenders to prison with reflexive
certainty, there are now institutional incentives to keep locking up more
people -- a trend that some people call the prison industrial complex.

The stock price of the Corrections Corporation of America, the nation's
largest private jailer, has increased tenfold since 1994. The company's
stock is now privately held. But Corrections Corp. has created a popular
real-estate investment fund to get a return on all those new prisons being
built at the rate of one a week.

Unions representing prison guards are the fastest-growing public employee
associations in many states. In California last year, the union was given a
raise of 12 percent, which brought the salary for a seasoned prison guard
up to $51,000.

It is the rare rural community that rejects a new prison in its backyard,
with the prospect of permanent, high-paying, benefit-rich government jobs.

The prisons in California, as in virtually every other state, are near
capacity, even though the state has built 21 new institutions in the last
15 years. Soon, it will cost nearly $4 billion a year to run the state's
prison system. Should the Legislature propose some change in the law that
might bring down the growth in prisons, they are likely to hear howls of
outrage from the union that has most benefited from the growth in prisons.

"Once you have a society committed to building new prisons and keeping
them, it's very difficult to close them down," said Mauer. "Particularly in
rural areas that come to depend on them. It's like trying to close a
military base."

The states also have an incentive to keep people in jail a long time. A
federal law passed in 1994 provides matching funds to states to keep
violent criminals in prison longer by denying parole. This act and other
so-called truth-in-sentencing laws are reasons why the ranks of prisoners
will not soon drop, even as crime levels off.

"We've got crime going in one direction, and social policy going in the
other," said Dr. Allen Beck, the Justice Department's lead statistician on
criminal justice trends.

The one thing that may finally slow prison growth, said Beck, are budget
concerns. It costs taxpayers $20,000 a year to house and feed every new
inmate -- and that does not include the cost of building new prisons and
jails. The states are spending nearly $30 billion to keep people in jail --
about double the rate of 10 years ago.

Some states are starting to balk. California legislative leaders say they
will build no new prisons in coming years, but they have not said what they
will do with excess prisoners. In Washington state, a bill that would
abolish mandatory minimum prison terms for drug offenders has gained
support from judges, prosecutors and tough-on-crime Republicans.

Washington was a pioneer state in enacting laws requiring long lockups,
with no chance of early release or leeway for judges to consider other
options. But prisons now are the state's fastest-growing part of the budget
-- even as crime has nearly bottomed out.

But it will be difficult to change the pattern, with new prisons rising in
depressed rural areas. Cleaning up after a crusade, some lawmakers said,
has proven much harder than they anticipated.

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

Medical Marijuana and Herpes (A list subscriber forwards a first-person
account testifying to the efficacy of raw cannabis used as a poultice to
alleviate symptoms of a herpes outbreak quickly.)

To: ukcia-l@mimir.com
From: webbooks@paston.co.uk (CLCIA)
From: "CRRH mailing list" (restore@crrh.org)
Subject: Cannabis and Herpes
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 1999 12:14:30 +0000

Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1999 18:37:05 -0500 (EST)
From: ccross@webtv.net (C. Cross)
From: restore@crrh.org
Subject: MMJ - herpes

Like rosemary, sage and olive oil, herbal cannabis is highly useful in
the kitchen, the bath, and the bedroom as well as the sickroom, where it
yields a stunning array of effective and practical uses.

Here's one you may not have heard of:

***

Dear Chris,

Riding to work a few months ago I felt the unmistakable, painful
announcement of an arriving cold-sore on my lower lip. As the day wore
on the pain gradually intensified. Swelling and redness were evident by
early afternoon. The throbbing became a persistent distraction.

By the ride home, I just wanted to bite the whole damn lip off. I knew
from past experience that I had an embarrassing week ahead of me nursing
a raw, swollen, painful sore on my lip followed by another week or two
of an unsightly scar and redness. I would have chewed mud if I thought
it would help.

I remembered reading that cannabis was said to be a healing herb with
many uses, so I inconspicuously reached into my stash and broke off a
small bud which I moistened by chewing and pressed against the sore like
a compress.

To my amazement, the pain subsided within the first two minutes. It
absolutely disappeared within 20 minutes. Within an hour the swelling
was completely down. I went home, slept well and had no further
symptoms, swelling, redness, pain or sign of that bug since. None!

I would like to know of others' experience with healing and cannabis.

[name witheld by request]

ccross

***

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Smugglers Corrupting U.S.'s Anti-Drug Forces, Study Says (A Knight Ridder
news service article in the Seattle Times says the U.S. General Accounting
Office is about to release a yearlong study that concludes that drug-related
corruption along the U.S.-Mexico border is a serious and continuing threat,
according to a draft of the report obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Last month the U.S. Customs Service called drug trafficking "the undisputed,
greatest corruption hazard confronting all federal, state and local law
enforcement agencies today." The number of state and local law enforcement
and other public officials convicted for drug corruption has increased from
79 in 1997 to 157 last year. Between 1994 and 1997, there were 46
drug-related indictments in the United States of border law enforcement
officials.)

Date: Sun, 7 Mar 1999 18:27:13 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US TX: Smugglers Corrupting U.S.'s Anti-Drug Forces, Study Says
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: John Smith
Pubdate: 7 Mar 1999
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 1999 The Seattle Times Company
Contact: opinion@seatimes.com
Website: http://www.seattletimes.com/
Author: Marisa Taylor and Ricardo Sandoval, Knight Ridder Newspapers

SMUGGLERS CORRUPTING U.S.'S ANTI-DRUG FORCES, STUDY SAYS

DONNA, Texas - In November 1997, when Miguel Carreon was hired as the
police chief of this small town nine miles from the Mexican border, he
vowed to restore the integrity of a force whose reputation had been sullied
by the indictment of six officers accused of helping to smuggle 1,700
pounds of marijuana into the United States.

Within months, however, a local figure approached Carreon and hinted that
the police should continue to cooperate with drug smugglers. "He told me
that drug smuggling has always been a way of life, and as long as nobody
gets hurt, nobody will know the difference," recalled Carreon, 42. "I
stopped the conversation before he said, `Let's work together.' "

U.S. officials and politicians are blasting the Clinton administration's
decision to certify Mexico as an ally in the war on drugs in the face of
Mexico's endemic drug corruption. But Carreon's encounter suggests that a
growing number of American law enforcement officials are also having
trouble staying clean amid the flood of dirty money and drugs across the
nation's southern border.

From small-town police departments to the expanding ranks of federal
anti-drug agencies, American officials say they are alarmed by their own
vulnerability to the corrupting influence of the drug trade. In a report to
Congress last month, the U.S. Customs Service called drug trafficking "the
undisputed, greatest corruption hazard confronting all federal, state and
local law enforcement agencies today."

The number of state and local law enforcement and other public officials
investigated by the FBI and convicted for drug corruption has increased
from 79 in 1997 to 157 last year. Between 1994 and 1997, there were 46
drug-related indictments in the United States of border law enforcement
officials.

`Overwhelming'

"It's been overwhelming on the Southwest border," said Wayne Beaman, the
special agent in charge of the McAllen, Texas, field office for the Justice
Department Inspector General's office, which investigates allegations of
corruption along the Texas-Mexico border. "We are woefully understaffed."

The congressional General Accounting Office is about to release a yearlong
study that concludes that drug-related corruption along the Southwest
border is a serious and continuing threat, according to a draft of the
report obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The GAO examined 28 convictions between 1992 and 1997 of U.S. Immigration
and Naturalization Service and Customs Service officials for drug-related
crimes on the Southwest border, which extends from Brownsville, Texas, to
Imperial Beach, Calif.

The cases included U.S. officials waving vehicles carrying drugs through
ports of entry, coordinating the movement of drugs across the Southwest
border, transporting drugs past Border Patrol checkpoints, selling drugs
and disclosing drug intelligence information.

In one case, a Customs inspector in El Paso, Texas, used a cellular
telephone to send a prearranged code to a drug smuggler's beeper, telling
him which lane to use at a border crossing and when to use it.

In another, an immigration official in Calexico, Calif., agreed to let her
boyfriend, a member of a drug-smuggling family, drive a vehicle loaded with
marijuana through her lane without inspection. INS detention officers also
smuggled drugs past Border Patrol checkpoints in INS vehicles, the report
says.

The report concludes that both Customs and the INS missed opportunities to
provide in-depth anti-corruption training to employees and failed to
conduct background investigations that are required every five years. In
some cases, the report says, background checks were overdue by as much as
three years.

The two agencies also failed to require sufficient financial information
from their employees, or else did not use what was available to sniff out
possible corruption, the GAO found.

In one case, the INS did not question a Border Patrol agent who owned a
$200,000 house with a five-car garage and an Olympic-size swimming pool
housed in its own building. The agent also had six vehicles, two boats, 100
weapons, $45,000 in Treasury bills and 40 acres of land.

Because neither INS nor Customs had completed an evaluation of its policies
and procedures or corrected internal weaknesses, the GAO concluded,
"neither agency can be sure that adequate internal controls are in place to
detect and prevent employee corruption."

Controls may not be adequate

The Customs Service, which is part of the Treasury Department, conceded in
its report to Congress last month that it may not have adequate internal
controls in place to detect and prevent corruption.

Customs Commissioner Raymond Kelly said his agency has begun taking steps
to tighten its hiring process, tackle the backlog of personnel
investigations and hire former federal prosecutor William Keefer to take
over the internal affairs division.

INS spokesman Greg Gagne said he would not comment directly on the GAO
report because it was still in draft form. But he said the agency is
confident that its training practices and background checks are thorough.

Although Gagne said there is no indication of an increase in corruption in
its ranks, he also said the INS is concerned that its growing number of
employees along the border are being targeted more often by drug smugglers.
By year's end, Gagne said, the INS hopes to have a work force of 29,000,
compared to 10,000 in 1992.

"It has become perfectly evident that drug smuggling and the use of money
to penetrate the border has become a more serious problem," he said.

Mexican officials agree.

"You read a lot about how drugs make it from South America, through Mexico
and to the border," said Juan Rebolledo, the Mexican foreign ministry's
undersecretary for North American affairs. "But are the same sources . . .
telling the public how it is that these same drugs make it from the border
to Chicago?

"They don't just magically make it there overnight. Drug dealers spread
their money all along the trail from source to consumption, so it's naive
to think that it is not spread north of the border as well," said Rebolledo.

"It's not good public relations to admit that there could be corruption
within law enforcement agencies," said Phil Jordan, a former head of the
Drug Enforcement Administration's El Paso Intelligence Center. Jordan said
he encountered resistance from his superiors when he tried to point out an
increase in the number of corruption allegations in the mid-1990s.

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

Caribbean Nations Suspend US Treaty (According to the Associated Press,
Caribbean Community nations have agreed to suspend a treaty of cooperation
with the United States to fight drug trafficking, angered by the U.S.
position in a trade dispute over banana exports to Europe.)

Date: Sun, 7 Mar 1999 18:37:19 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Wire: Caribbean Nations Suspend Us Treaty
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: 7 Mar 1999
Source: Associated Press
Copyright: 1999 Associated Press
Author: Bert Wilkinson Associated Press Writer

CARIBBEAN NATIONS SUSPEND US TREATY

PARAMARIBO, Suriname (AP) Angered by the U.S. position in a trade dispute
over banana exports to Europe, Caribbean Community nations have agreed to
suspend a treaty of cooperation with the United States to fight drug
trafficking, an official said Sunday.

The treaty signed in Barbados by President Clinton in May 1997 calls for
cooperation by Caribbean nations in anti-drug trafficking measures and
extradition of suspects. But regional leaders have increasingly complained
that Washington has ignored its end of the bargain by failing to address
economic issues so important to the Caribbean.

Leonard Robertson, a spokesman for the 14-member Caribbean Community, known
regionally as Caricom, said the decision to suspend the treaty was seen by
the Caribbean leaders as the strongest way to send a message to Washington.

The United States filed a protest last year with the World Trade
Organization over preferences given by some European countries to former
colonies in the Caribbean. The trade preferences hurt U.S.-owned producers
with huge plantations in Central and South America, the United States
contended.

Smaller Caribbean producers say they cannot compete with the larger Latin
American plantations and need the preferences.

The dispute escalated last week as the United States announced plans to
impose punitive tariffs on targeted European goods. Caribbean nations
joined European Union claims that the sanctions by the United States are
illegal.

The WTO is holding an emergency meeting Monday to discuss the spreading
trade dispute.

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

ACM-Bulletin of 7 March 1999 (An English-language news bulletin from the
Association for Cannabis as Medicine, in Cologne, Germany, focuses on a
United Nations report encouraging research into the medical use of cannabis;
the Canadian health minister's announcement about clinical trials into
medical marijuana; the introduction of a bill in Britain's parliament to
allow the medical use of cannabis; and the introduction of a medical
marijuana bill in the U.S. congress.)

From: "Association for Cannabis as Medicine" (info@acmed.org)
To: acm-bulletin@acmed.org
Date: Sun, 7 Mar 1999 22:55:32 +0100
Subject: ACM-Bulletin of 7 March 1999
Sender: info@acmed.org

***

ACM-Bulletin of 7 March 1999

***

* World: U.N. report encourages research into the medical use of
cannabis

* Canada: Health Minister orders clinical trials

* Great Britain: Introduction of a bill for the medical use of
cannabis in Parliament

* USA: Introduction of a bill for the medical use of marijuana in
Congress

***

1.

World: U.N. report encourages research into the medical use of
cannabis

In-depth and impartial scientific studies should be conducted into
marijuana's possible medical benefits, the annual report of the
International Drug Control Board (INCB) recommended on 23
February. The INCB stressed that such research must not
become a pretext for legalizing cannabis.

In his 'Message from the President' Hamid Ghodse said: "The
Board has noted with regret how possible medical uses of
cannabis have been used to justify the legalization of all cannabis
use. The Board welcomes and encourages serious, scientific
research on the alleged medical properties of cannabis as well as
the wide dissemination of such work, but warns against misusing
these research efforts for 'blanket' legalization purposes. Should
the medical usefulness of cannabis be established, it will be a drug
no different from most narcotic drugs and psychotropic
substances. Cannabis, prescribed for medical purposes, would
also be subject to licensing and other control measures under the
international drug control treaties."

The Vienna-based INCB is the quasi-judicial control organ for the
implementation of the United Nations drug conventions,
established in 1968 by the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of
1961. Its 13 members are elected by the United Nations
Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and their work is
financed by the United Nations. Three members are elected from
a list of candidates nominated by the World Health Organization
(WHO) and 10 from a list nominated by Governments.

(Sources: Press Release of the INCB of 23 February 1999,
Annual Report of the INCB for 1998 on the website of the INCB
at: http://www.incb.org)

***

2.

Canada: Health Minister orders clinical trials

Canadian Health Minister Allan Rock (Liberal) said on 3 March
before the House of Commons he has ordered officials to develop
clinical trials for the medical use of marijuana and to determine
how to grant safe access to the drug. The minister released few
details of the tests, but said officials have been asked to set up the
clinical experiments, as well as establish what kinds of patients
would participate.

Reaction from opposition members was mostly positive, although
Reform MP Grant Hill, a medical doctor, warned of risks if the
testing was seen as a first step down the road to legalizing the
drug for general use.

Bloc Quebecois MP Bernard Bigras introduced a motion in
Parliament on 4 March urging the government to take every step
toward legalizing medical marijuana. Bigras has Tory and NDP
support. He accused the Health Minister of plotting to derail his
Commons motion.

Bigras said he doubts the sincerity of Rock's announcement that
he'll launch clinical tests of medical marijuana. He said if Rock
honestly plans to move forward with the tests, he has to support
the Bloc motion when it comes to a vote in June. Meantime, he
said, Rock can prove his good faith by using Health Canada's
powers to provide legal access to pot for AIDS and cancer
victims.

In 1997 an Ontario court called the Narcotic Control Act
unconstitutional as it applies to the therapeutic use of cannabis.

(Sources: Reuters of 3 March 1999, AP of 3 March 1999,
Calgary Herald of 4 March 1999, London Free Press of 5 March
1999)

***

3.

Great Britain: Introduction of a bill for the medical use of cannabis in
Parliament

British members of parliament on 3 March gave a small boost to
campaigners for the legalization of cannabis for medical use by
allowing MP Paul Flynn (Labour) to introduce a bill making it legal
for doctors to prescribe the drug. As an unlicensed medicine,
doctors would be allowed to prescribe cannabis, but would have to
name the people who would get it, and the amount.

Although the bill has virtually no chance of becoming law, such
parliamentary moves are seen as a useful way of garnering
publicity for contentious issues. It reflects the feeling among some
Members of Parliament that Britain lags behind other European
nations on the medical use of cannabis.

Paul Flynn said many people with diseases such as cancer and
multiple sclerosis were being treated as criminals under the
current law. The Government has given permission for cannabis
to undergo laboratory tests to see if it could be licensed as a
medicine. But Mr Flynn said: "Research will take at least five
years and probably longer. The tens of thousands of multiple
sclerosis, Aids and cancer sufferers should not have to wait that
long for a natural medicine which has been used by millions of
people for thousands of years."

(Sources: PA News of 23 and 24 February 1999, Reuters of 24
February 1999, Independent of 24 February 1999)

***

4.

USA: Introduction of a bill for the medical use of marijuana in Congress

Congress should eliminate federal restrictions on states that allow
marijuana use for medical purposes, Rep. Barney Frank
(Democrat) said.

Frank introduced a bill on 2 March, that would reclassify
marijuana as a Schedule II drug, meaning that it could be
prescribed by doctors under certain conditions, just as morphine
and other controlled substances are. Prescriptions for such drugs
are subject to federal and state review.

Arizona, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California and Nevada
have permitted medical use of the drug. While persons using
marijuana for medical purposes don't face state prosecution in the
six states, they could still face federal prosecution. Frank isn't
hopeful that the Republican-controlled Congress will pass his bill.
Last fall, the House adopted, 310-93, a resolution that said
marijuana is a dangerous and addictive drug and should not be
legalized for medical use.

(Sourcess: AP of 3 and 4 March 1999)

***

5.

News in brief

***

Switzerland:

The Swiss Parliament dismissed a motion of the Greens for the
legalization of cannabis by a 65-50 vote. The government wants to
discuss this issue only within the planned revision of the narcotics
act. The motion got support from the social democrats (SP).
Pierre Chiffelle (SP) said, he himself would smoke cannabis
regularly. Christine Goll added, hashish would be a part of every
days life culture and would cause less harm than alcohol. Other
parliamentarians warned of a belittlement of the drug. Prohibition
would be reasonable.

(Source: Basler Zeitung of 5 March 1999)

***

Great Britain:

A grandfather was jailed on 23 February after failing to persuade
a court to allow him to smoke cannabis to relieve his arthritis. A
judge ruled that 56-year-old Eric Mann had not tried a sufficient 
number of conventional treatments before turning to cannabis. Mr
Mann suffered crippling arthritis and became suicidal. Conventional
drugs failed to work and he turned to cannabis, which slowly made him
virtually pain free. Over the years he cultivated cannabis plants in
the attic of his home in west Wales. He was jailed for 12 months.

(Source: PA News of 23 February 1999)

***

USA:

When AIDS patient Peter McWilliams asked a judge on 26
February to alter his bail conditions so he can smoke pot while
awaiting trial in September, the prosecutors dismissed it. Federal
attorneys argue that the law leaves no room for sympathy. A
federal grand jury in July 1998 indicted McWilliams on nine counts
of conspiring to possess, manufacture and distribute marijuana. A
federal magistrate forbade him from smoking marijuana as one of
the conditions of his bail release. Since his release and subsequent
denial of pot, McWilliams' viral load has skyrocketed from
undetectable to a level that, if it is not reduced, will inevitably lead
to the crumbling of his immune system, his doctor says.
(Source: Los Angeles Times of 26 February 1999)

***

6.

THE COMMENT

... on the jail sentence of a British man suffering from severe arthritis:

"This is an absurdly harsh sentence. Prison should not be used for victimless
crimes".

Paul Cavadino, Director of Policy of the National Association for the Care
and Resettlement of Offenders (PA News of 23 February 1999)

***

Association for Cannabis as Medicine (ACM)
Maybachstrasse 14
D-50670 Cologne
Germany
Phone: +49-221-912 30 33
Fax: +49-221-130 05 91
Email: info@acmed.org
Internet: http://www.acmed.org

If you want to be deleted from or added to the ACM-Bulletin
mailing list please send a message to: info@acmed.org

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

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