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

Report says state failing to meet its own goals in many areas (The
Associated Press says the Oregon Progress Report, which gauges 92 indicators
of the state's economic, social and environmental health, suggests Oregon is
flunking its own Year 2000 goals for fighting child abuse, job distribution
and halting high-school dropouts. Kay Toran, director of Services to Children
and Families, blames an increase in child abuse on an increase in "substance
abuse," without clarifying whether she was talking primarily about legal
alcoholics, tobacco consumers, people who need coffee in the morning, or just
casual pot smokers. "When you have parents that are addicted, they aren't
able to provide the care and nurturing children need," she said, without
clarifying the role of prohibition in making certain addictions more damaging
than others.)

Associated Press
found at:
http://www.oregonlive.com/
feedback (letters to the editor):
feedback@thewire.ap.org

Report says state failing to meet its own goals in many areas

The Associated Press
3/15/99 7:14 PM

SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- Oregon is flunking its own Year 2000 goals for fighting
child abuse, job distribution and halting high-school dropouts, according to
the Oregon Progress Report.

The report grades 92 indicators of the state's economic, social and
environmental health. The Oregon Progress Board is required to report to the
Legislature every two years. The state ranked an overall C-plus.

High marks were given to the individual benchmarks of public safety,
formation of new companies, air quality and forest land preservation. But
the broader categories did not fare so well.

In most cases, the state is at least advancing toward the 2000 goals -- just
not as quickly as hoped.

"The benchmarks are telling us we could be in trouble in the long run if we
don't pay attention," said Brett Wilcox, vice-chairman of the board.

Grades were calculated by determining how much progress Oregon had made
between 1990 and 1998 compared to where the state needs to be to achieve
year 2000 targets.

"We try not to set goals that are higher than other states," said Executive
Director Jeffrey Tryens. "But they are on the high side of those states.
They're ambitious but realistic."

Among the more critical rankings:

--The grade for reaching state child abuse goals dropped from a C in 1997 to
an F, reaching a decade-high of 12 abused or neglected children per 1,000
children. The goal was to reduce the number to nine per thousand.

-- Oregon's 7 percent high school dropout rate, which has increased since
1993, misses the Year 2000 goal of no more than 5.7 percent per class, the
report found in handing out a failing grade. While about 7 percent of
students drop out in any single year, 25 percent of all ninth graders will
drop out before graduation.

--Oregon ranked a D-minus in volunteerism, for which the benchmark is 35
percent of Oregonians serving their communities. After increasing from 30
percent in 1992 to 33 percent in 1996, the percentage of volunteers dropped
in 1998 to 29 percent.

-- Reducing the number of congested highway miles got an F. The latest data
indicated more than 50 percent are congested, with no sign of dropping below
the 50 percent goal.

--In public safety, the state scored a D-plus. The state got an F for crime
and an F for juvenile arrests.

-- The report gave environment an overall grade of C-plus. The state got an
F for salmon and steelhead restoration, but an A for the number of
Oregonians living where air meets government standards and for agricultural,
forest and wetland preservation.

Bob Applegate, spokesman for Gov. John Kitzhaber, said the areas with low
marks already of concern to the governor.

"It sounds like the Progress Board discovered the same thing we did in the
process of campaigning: that those areas need work," Applegate said.

As for child abuse, Kay Toran, director of Services to Children and
Families, blames an increase in substance abuse.

"When you have parents that are addicted, they aren't able to provide the
care and nurturing children need," she said.

(c) 1999 Oregon Live LLC

Copyright 1999 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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

Oregon at its best earns C-plus grades in progress (The Oregonian version)

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/

Monday March 15, 1999

Oregon at its best earns C-plus grades in progress

* Teens, wild fish, commuters and some renters fare poorly in a review a
state board will release today

By Scott Learn
of The Oregonian staff

Oregon's babies are doing better. But many of its teen-agers aren't. Neither
are wild fish, commuters and poor people who rent.

The Oregon Progress Board's fifth report to the Legislature, to be released
today, documents Oregon's progress on 92 performance benchmarks that were
set in 1989.

For the first time, the board gave grades in seven broad categories. The
economy and the environment got the best overall grades, but with only
C-plus marks. Civic engagement earned the dunce cap, with a D, as voter
participation and volunteerism dropped.

With overall crime and juvenile arrests up since 1990, public safety got a
D-plus, as did community development, thanks to increased traffic
congestion, less affordable housing and a collective shrug at mass transit.

"Average isn't good enough for Oregon is really the message I think the
board wants to give," said Jeffrey Tryens, the board's executive director.
"We're making some progress in some areas, but we're not making any in others."

The report includes goals for 2000 and 2010. The state has already hit or
exceeded its year 2000 goals in some important areas, among them infant
mortality, air quality and the state's rank in creating new companies, which
now stands at seventh in the nation.

But some goals for the millennium appear well out of reach. Oregon's
juvenile arrest rate was supposed to fall from 1990 to 2000. It has gone up
27 percent.

Nearly half of low-income renters were supposed to be spending less than 30
percent of their income on housing. Less than one-third are.

And the state hoped to have 13 percent of its wild salmon and steelhead at
target levels in key areas by 2000. The 1997 figure: 2 percent.

The goals were first laid out in the state's 1989 strategic plan. The report
from the progress board, headed by Gov. John Kitzhaber, is designed to
provide information for legislative decisions.

Senate Minority Leader Kate Brown, D-Portland, said she expects the progress
board's facts to squeeze into debates about juvenile crime prevention,
welfare reform and how to spend money from the state's share of the legal
settlement with tobacco companies.

"I'm certainly disappointed that the results weren't better," Brown said. "I
think the reality is it's just going to take longer than we had anticipated"
to meet the goals.

The report reveals many trends. Among them:

* The surging economy hasn't dented poverty or spread equally to rural
Oregon. Oregonians with incomes less than the poverty level increased
slightly from 11 percent in 1990 to 12 percent in 1998.

Employment outside the Willamette Valley is growing at a 2 percent annual
clip, Tryens said, but that region's share of total employment in the state
has dropped.

"That's a big change for Oregon," Tryens said. "The whole idea that rural is
not going to do as well as urban is just not in the Oregon psyche."

* Many of the benchmarks involving teen-agers are getting worse. Teen
pregnancy has dropped. But juvenile arrests, high school dropout rates, and
drug and cigarette use among teens are all up.

* Oregonians might not be standing up for what makes Oregon stand out.
People are driving more miles and creating more trash.

And, at 71 percent, the percentage of people driving alone during rush hours
hasn't budged.

* Oregon's famed civic involvement also seems to be faltering. Voting is
less popular, and so is volunteering.

Although the state remains a leader in volunteer effort, the percent of
people putting in 50 hours or more of volunteer work each year dropped
slightly, from 30 percent to 29 percent, from 1992 to 1998.

"Family life is at the top of our list of personal values," the report says,
"while civic affairs are near the bottom."

You can reach Scott Learn at 503-221-8564 or by e-mail at
scottlearn@news.oregonian.com. The fax number is 503-294-5023. The mailing
address is 1320 S.W. Broadway, Portland, Ore. 97201.

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

Medicinal marijuana nears mainstream (USA Today focuses on the experiences
of JoAnna McKee of the Green Cross in Washington state in an update on the
political battle for medical marijuana. The medicinal use of the herb is now
legal all along the West Coast, and more state ballot victories seem likely.
On Wednesday the Institute of Medicine, an arm of the National Academy of
Sciences, is expected to release a long-awaited study commissioned by White
House drug czar Barry McCaffrey on the effectiveness of marijuana as a
medicine.)

Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 10:27:22 -0600
From: "Frank S. World" (compassion23@geocities.com)
Organization: Rx Cannabis Now!
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/7417/
Subject: DPFCA: USA TODAY: Medicinal marijuana nears mainstream
Sender: owner-dpfca@drugsense.org
Reply-To: "Frank S. World" (compassion23@geocities.com)
Organization: DrugSense http://www.drugsense.org/dpfca/
Source: USA Today
Website http://www.usatoday.com/news/nfront.htm
Address 1000 Wilson Blvd., Arlington VA 22229
Email editor@usatoday.com
Fax (703) 247-3108
Pubdate: 3/15/99- Updated 12:26 AM ET

MEDICINAL MARIJUANA NEARS MAINSTREAM

By Patrick McMahon, USA TODAY

SEATTLE - JoAnna McKee bustles around her den, handing out pharmacy bottles
of marijuana buds and leaves to visitors. They come and go, usually taking
away 7 to 10 grams - about a third of an ounce, enough to last a week.
Paying is strictly voluntary: Some visitors donate as much as $70 for their
weekly supply, but others pay nothing at all. Occasionally McKee will hand
out small marijuana plants for home cultivation.

The 500 customers McKee serves each week suffer from intractable pain, AIDS,
multiple sclerosis, epilepsy or cancer. Under a new Washington state law,
they're entitled to use marijuana to ease their pain or improve their
appetites.

Medicinal marijuana, highly controversial when it was approved in California
and Arizona in 1996, is going mainstream. Five states in the West now allow
marijuana to be used for medical purposes. Initiatives to legalize medical
marijuana are being put on the ballot in Maine this November and in Nevada
and perhaps in Colorado in 2000. They are under consideration in another
four states: Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan and Ohio.

On Wednesday, the Institute of Medicine, an arm of the National Academy of
Sciences, is expected to release a long-awaited study commissioned by White
House drug czar Barry McCaffrey on the effectiveness of marijuana as a
medicine. Activists hope the report will conclude that at least some uses of
medical marijuana have scientific merit. The report will call only for more
research.

Even in California, where implementation had been impeded because of fierce
opposition from former attorney general Dan Lungren, attitudes are loosening
up. Bill Lockyer, a Democrat who replaced Lungren in January, has announced
that he favors the law and will work to lift all legal obstacles.

"Along the entire Pacific Coast, patients are now freed from state laws
preventing the medical use of marijuana and discovering its capacity to
alleviate pain," says Bill Zimmerman of Americans for Medical Rights. The
group, based in Santa Monica, sponsored most of the ballot propositions
approved so far.

The number of Americans who use medical marijuana is expected to grow at a
rapid pace. The states that have adopted laws - California, Washington,
Oregon, Arizona and Alaska - are issuing guidelines and putting their laws
into effect. Two of these states are starting to issue identification cards
to help patients avoid arrest.

Legal limbo

The laws explicitly permit patients with specific chronic or terminal
diseases to smoke marijuana as long as they have a doctor's recommendation.
But the laws say nothing about how such patients can obtain marijuana,
except by growing it themselves. Selling or giving away marijuana remains a
crime under both state and federal law.

So McKee and the Green Cross Patients Co-op she and a partner have run for
five years operate in a sort of legal limbo. Local law enforcement officials
say they have no plans to shut down the co-op, but McKee is theoretically
vulnerable to prosecution.

Only a few clinics and co-ops like Green Cross operate openly, here as well
as in metropolitan Los Angeles and in the tiny town of Arcata in northern
California. Elsewhere, such operations remain underground because of the
federal ban on possessing, selling or distributing marijuana or because of
opposition from local officials.

McKee, 56, is well-known to the Seattle police department as a passionate
believer in the medicinal value of marijuana who scrupulously insists that
her patients have permission from their doctors. She also uses medical
marijuana herself, "for muscle spasms, epilepsy and constant pain caused by
trauma," she says. "I've had a 'note' from my doctors since 1987."

Whether coasting across the room or down a government corridor in a
wheelchair, McKee is easy to spot with her dog, YuYu, who often pulls her
along. A distinctive patch covers her right eye. The black patch features a
green marijuana leaf extending from a gold medical symbol, the caduceus.

McKee has had brushes with law enforcement. In 1987, she was arrested for
marijuana possession in Kodiak, Alaska. In May 1995, she was arrested in
Washington. The charges were thrown out by a trial judge who ruled that 160
marijuana plants were seized without a proper search warrant.

McKee's biggest problem: "I'm having trouble keeping enough on hand," she
says. Since voters in Washington state approved the use of medical marijuana
last fall, "activity is up 20%. People come from all over."

Doctors are permitted by most of the new state laws to "recommend" the use
of marijuana for specific categories of chronically ill or dying patients.
But under federal drug laws, doctors cannot legally prescribe it.

The U.S. Justice Department continues to prosecute marijuana law violators,
including some medical users, at a record pace. So far, the government has
not prosecuted any doctors who recommend marijuana to patients.

"The Department of Justice is committed to upholding and supporting the laws
passed by Congress," Justice Department spokesman Brian Steel says.

In 1998, as part of the budget process, Congress expressed concern about
"the ambiguous cultural messages about marijuana use" that it said
contributed to growing acceptance of it among teen-agers. By a 310-93 vote,
the House opposed state "efforts to circumvent" federal laws by legalizing
marijuana "without valid scientific evidence." The Senate concurred.

Far bigger worries

Last month, however, McCaffrey signaled a weariness with the issue during a
speech at the University of Washington.

He repeated his insistence that any change in drug policy should be based on
science, not politics, and declared there's no proof marijuana is good
medicine. He also said that the true goal for some in the medical marijuana
movement is to make marijuana legal for everyone.

But frankly, he told the crowd, he has far bigger worries than the debate
over medical marijuana.

"You'll look deep into my eyes and see a guy who doesn't care. We've got
these huge problems out there," he said, citing crack cocaine, heroin and
methamphetamines as well as use of marijuana and other illegal drugs by
teen-agers.

McCaffrey's comments come as medical marijuana seems certain to get renewed
attention in the weeks ahead.

On Wednesday, the Institute of Medicine, an arm of the National Academy of
Sciences, is expected to release the study commissioned by McCaffrey.

Next week, attorneys general from across the country will meet in
Washington, D.C. Lockyer, the California attorney general, hopes meetings
with Attorney General Janet Reno and McCaffrey will include discussion of
medical marijuana.

In JoAnna McKee's den, patients such as Casey Wilbanks, 44, talk about the
importance of marijuana. Wilbanks was a truck driver "before I lost 70
pounds," he says. Diagnosed with AIDS in 1991, he says marijuana has helped
him combat depression and improve his appetite. "Cannabis brings me a state
of balance," he says. "It helped me wake up and say, 'You're not dead. Now
what?'?"

About 75% of Green Cross' patients are HIV-positive, McKee says.

Margaret Denny, 48, of Maple Valley, a Seattle suburb, was hurt badly in an
automobile accident 20 years ago. "I was told I'll never live another moment
without pain, and they were right," she says.

Able to travel in a wheelchair, the part-time computer programmer says she
started using marijuana five years ago for the pain. "It doesn't take the
pain completely away, but it does give me the ability to deal with it," she
says.

Some doctors remain skeptical. The Washington State Medical Association,
which opposed the law, issued a sample recommendation form last month for
doctors to use. The form says in part: "Not all health care providers
believe that medical marijuana is safe or effective, and some providers feel
it is a dangerous drug."

The trickiest question confronting patients today is how to get medical
marijuana legally, other than by growing it.

"It's a big issue, but I don't want to leave the impression that people
can't find it," says Dave Fratello of Americans for Medical Rights. "We
advise patients to just ask around. With 10 million recreational users of
marijuana, most patients aren't more than a couple of phone calls away from
a source."

Until she found Green Cross, "I had to depend on friends of friends of
friends," Denny says. "Sometimes I worried about what I was getting."

Law enforcement is a concern for organizations like Green Cross. But McKee
says that "we have a good relationship with the police. They know we
carefully screen patients and require a doctor's recommendation."

Seattle law enforcement is "in solidarity that the will of the people will
be carried out" concerning medical marijuana, says Dan Satterberg, chief of
staff for the King County's prosecutor office. But the law protects
patients, not suppliers of any kind, he notes.

Law enforcement actions vary from state to state and region to region.

Implementation is "going to depend on local district attorneys and law
enforcement," says Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy
Project, based in Washington, D.C.

Someone allowed to operate a marijuana buyers club in Los Angeles, he says,
"would be arrested for it in Needles," a desert town 100 miles east of Los
Angeles. "I guarantee it."

Perhaps the biggest attitude adjustment on medical marijuana has come this
winter in California.

Lockyer, the new attorney general, supports the law but recognizes that it
is vague and ambiguous in parts. He has appointed a task force to find ways
"to make it more effective."

Lockyer knows something about the suffering of the terminally ill. "My mom
died of leukemia when she was 50; my little sister died of leukemia at 39,"
he says. "It's always seemed puzzling to me that doctors could prescribe
morphine but not marijuana."

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

Senate Considers Marijuana Proposal (The Duluth News-Tribune says Minnesota
citizens and legislators who favor a medical-marijuana bill proposed by Rep.
Karen Clark, DFL-Minneapolis, are counting on the growing support among
cancer patients and the popularity of Gov. Jesse Ventura to push their bill
through the legislature. The measure will receive its first hearing Tuesday
morning in a senate committee. A move to tighten the bill's language appears
likely.)

Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 04:51:32 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US MN: MMJ: Senate Considers Marijuana Proposal
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: 15 Mar 1999
Source: Duluth News-Tribune (MN)
Copyright: 1999 Duluth News-Tribune
Contact: newstrib@duluth.infi.net
Address: 424 W. First St., Duluth, MN 55802
Website: http://www.duluthnews.com/
Forum: http://krwebx.infi.net/webxmulti/cgi-bin/WebX?duluth
Author: Charles Laszewski Saint Paul Pioneer Press

SENATE CONSIDERS MARIJUANA PROPOSAL

Minnesota citizens and legislators who want to give doctors the authority
to recommend marijuana for their patients are counting on the growing
support among cancer patients and the popularity of Gov. Jesse Ventura to
push their bill through the Legislature.

The measure will receive its first hearing Tuesday morning in a Senate
committee, and a move to tighten the bill's language appears likely.

``The governor supports helping people deal with pain,'' said Public Safety
Commissioner Charlie Weaver, who said he has discussed his concerns over
wording with Rep. Karen Clark, DFL-Minneapolis, who is sponsoring the bill
in the House of Representatives.

``I lost both my mother and my father to cancer, so I sympathize,'' Weaver
said. However, he noted, ``The definition on symptoms is too broad. We
don't want to make it so drug dealers can say they are using it because
they have a bad back or that they are growing it for Mom, who is ill.''

Ventura's spokesman, John Wodele, said the governor supports the concept
but would not commit to signing it until he sees what the final bill says.

The debate is not new. In the past five years, seven states have passed
laws allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana to people who are suffering
from terminal illnesses or chronic conditions that seem to respond to
cannabis and its active ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC.

Opponents, such as Tom Prichard, president of the Minnesota Family Council,
and Jeanette McDougal, co-chairwoman of Minnesota Drugwatch, argue that
smoking marijuana is harmful and legalizing it, even under a doctor's
supervision, sends the wrong message to children.

But McDougal conceded she will have a tougher battle this time than in
1995, when a similar bill was defeated. Ventura's support is the reason.

McDougal also is aware that she will be fighting sentimentality. She
slipped into a weepy impression of an interview in which a woman tells
about the pain suffered by her husband and how just before he died she gave
him a marijuana joint.

``People resonate to that,'' McDougal said. ``Nobody wants to see people
die in pain.''

Sen. Pat Piper, an Austin DFLer and the chief sponsor of the proposal in
the Senate, acknowledged that is one of the supporters' tactics. She
suffered from breast cancer about 12 years ago and was so ill from
chemotherapy that she had to be hospitalized.

Vivian Klauber, who has been pushing the bill and lining up people to
testify after watching her aunt die a painful death from breast cancer in
June, said those who support the bill know the anecdotal evidence for
marijuana.

``If I was testifying, I would say, `How many of you suffer from -- or
someone close to you suffers from -- cancer?' '' Klauber said.

The bill, as it is currently drafted, would allow a doctor to recommend
marijuana for patients suffering from glaucoma, appetite loss, severe
nausea, spastic conditions, severe pain, seizures and migraines. Those
symptoms could occur from cancer, HIV/AIDS, Crohn's disease, cerebral palsy
or multiple sclerosis.

A patient could not have more than 8 ounces of the drug at any one time or
four mature and three immature growing marijuana plants. The bill would
protect the patient, the doctor and the patient's primary caregiver from
criminal prosecution for recommending or helping the patient obtain the
drug for medical reasons.

Lori, a 27-year-old southern Minnesota woman who asked that her last name
not be used for fear of prosecution, wants the law passed. She suffers from
Type II spinal muscular atrophy, a condition that has forced her to use a
wheelchair since she was 3. Although she can feed herself and operate her
electric wheelchair, she cannot reposition herself in the chair, and
sitting in the same position for a very long time causes intense pain. Lori
also has battled depression since she was a teen.

About four years ago, she was at a party where some friends gave her a
joint. She found smoking it relieved some of the pain, so she could focus
on other people and what they were saying. It also seemed to lighten her
mood, she said. Lori said she carefully monitored her reaction because she
was fearful that it might harm her. Instead, after a couple of months, she
noticed her skin didn't hurt as much, she slept better, and her mood was so
much better that she wants to start looking for a job.

Prichard and McDougal, however, said that smoking marijuana is as harmful
as smoking cigarettes. They say there are other medicines, including some
that are made from the active ingredient in marijuana, that can be
prescribed instead.

Marijuana contains tar, ammonia, carbon monoxide and other substances that
have gotten the tobacco industry in trouble, McDougal said.

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

He Dares Question Idiocy Of Drug War On College Campus (Columbus Dispatch
columnist Steve Stephens reflects on an encounter with Heath Wintz, 21, a
clean-cut, well-spoken sophomore studying environmental engineering at
Columbus State Community College, in Ohio. Wintz was gathering signatures
last week, seeking to reform the U.S. Higher Education Act of 1998, which
allows murderers and rapists to obtain federal student aid, but not pot
smokers. That idiocy, however, is not what turned Wintz against the drug war.
DARE did that, back when he was in middle school. In an earlier attempt to
petition, campus officials and security guards forced him to scram. Some
students refuse to sign Wintz's petition because they fear government
reprisal. One can't fault them. In times of war, there's no such thing as
paranoia. Stephens' stand on casual drug use resembles Hillary Rodham
Clinton's on casual adultery: He doesn't endorse it, but he tolerates it for
the sake of the Constitution.)

Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 07:45:51 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US OH: Column: He Dares Question Idiocy Of Drug War
On College Campus
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Craig (hippy@innocent.com)
Pubdate: Mon, 15 Mar 1999
Source: Columbus Dispatch (OH)
Copyright: 1999, The Columbus Dispatch
Contact: letters@dispatch.com
Website: http://www.dispatch.com/
Author: Steve Stephens, Dispatch Columnist
Comments: sstephen@dispatch.com

HE DARES QUESTION IDIOCY OF DRUG WAR ON COLLEGE CAMPUS

Murderers and rapists are eligible for federal student aid. Pot smokers are
not.

This idiocy, though, is not what turned Heath Wintz into a warrior against
the drug war.

DARE performed that trick, back when the Columbus State Community College
honors student was in middle school.

Wintz, 21, a clean-cut, well-spoken sophomore studying environmental
engineering, was gathering signatures in the student lounge at Nestor Hall
when I met him last week.

Wintz would like students to take a stand against the Higher Education Act
of 1998.

One provision denies aid to students convicted of sale or possession of
drugs while another provides money to educate those locked up for non-drug
crimes.

Wintz noted, correctly, that this makes no sense.

"I'm just sorry that I'm one of the few people who find this offensive
enough to speak out,'' he said.

His efforts at Columbus State yielded 84 signatures last week -- more than
in a earlier attempt, when campus officials and security guards forced him
to scram.

"The student-activities people gave me no flak this time, other than asking
me to leave at the time I had printed on my fliers,'' he said.

Wintz began to question the drug war 10 years ago when he noticed that only
police, not doctors or psychologists, taught his Drug Abuse Resistance
Education classes.

He'd seen older kids smoking marijuana "and they weren't dying, like they
said in DARE.''

"As I got older, I could see that people can smoke pot and still can do well
in college, can succeed in life.

"So I asked questions. In DARE, though, they wouldn't stray from the
rehearsed rhetoric. As you can guess, I wasn't a very popular kid.''

Wintz insisted he's not advocating marijuana use. He's merely sharing his
discovery that far more lives are destroyed by drug warriors and their laws
than by the pharmacological effects of drugs.

Many Columbus State students -- especially those in law-enforcement
classes -- took issue with Wintz's efforts. Others refused to sign Wintz's
petition because they feared government reprisal.

I can't fault them. In times of war, there's no such thing as paranoia.

The feds have begun a crackdown in California against supporters of the
medical use of marijuana, arresting author Peter McWilliams, 1998
Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Steven Kubby, Kubby's wife and others.

Forfeiture laws allow police across the country to seize cars, homes and
money on the flimsiest of drug-related pretexts.

Fortunately, opposition to drug-war madness has arisen across the political
spectrum, from Barney Frank to William F. Buckley. On the other hand, Bill
Clinton, who prefers not to inhale (I imagine him chewing the ends of his
reefers like cigar butts), was a big supporter of the legislation Wintz
opposes.

My stand on casual drug use resembles Hillary Rodham Clinton's on casual
adultery: I don't endorse it, but I tolerate it for the sake of the
Constitution.

The real battles, though, will fall to the next generation.

I've always considered DARE a complete waste of time and money. But if it
can help turn the best and brightest into young drug-war cynics, I may just
change my mind.

Steve Stephens is a Dispatch Metro columnist. He can be reached at 461-5201

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

Federal Judge OKs Pot Case (UPI briefly notes U.S. District Judge Marvin Katz
in Philadelphia has refused to dismiss a class-action lawsuit seeking access
to medical marijuana.)

Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 18:27:11 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US PA: Wire: Federal Judge Gives OKs Pot Case
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: 15 Mar 1999
Source: United Press International
Copyright: 1999 United Press International

(PHILADELPHIA) - A federal judge is refusing to dismiss a lawsuit that
seeks to legalize the medical use of marijuana. U.S. District Judge Marvin
Katz says the plaintiffs in the class-action suit deserve the chance to
prove the government has no reason to deny the drug to seriously ill
people. Justice Department officials say they stand by the fact that
marijuana remains an illegal drug, but the lawyer representing the 165
people who are part of the suit says medical research has shown that
marijuana can help patients suffering from glaucoma and combats the nausea
caused by drugs used to treat cancer and AIDS.

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

Ballplayer Killed In Police Chase (UPI notes police in Tallahassee, Florida,
nabbed one man and 28 bags of cocaine early Friday after a high-speed chase
ended at an Interstate 10 interchange. The suspect's car crashed into a van
carrying a baseball team from Bluefield State College in West Virginia,
killing Shannon Stewart, a freshman.)

Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 19:23:34 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US FL: WIRE: Ballplayer Killed In Police Chase
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: Mon, 15 Mar 1999
Source: United Press International
Copyright: 1999 United Press International

BALLPLAYER KILLED IN POLICE CHASE

TALLAHASSEE, Fla., March 12 (UPI) - A baseball player from Bluefield
State College in West Virginia died this morning when a school van was
hit by a car during a police chase in Tallahassee.

The van - one of three Bluefield vehicles nearing Tallahassee before
sunrise - was struck by a car driven by drug suspect Albert Lee Williams.

Police had been chasing Williams at speeds up to 85 mph when his car
hit the van at an Interstate 10 interchange.

Freshman Shannon Stewart died of his injuries at Tallahassee Memorial
Hospital. Another student is listed in stable condition.

The Bluefield College baseball team was en route to the capital to
play a weekend series against Florida A&M University.

Officials say 28 bags of cocaine were found in Williams' car. He's
been charged with second-degree murder.

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

Prison Population Still Rising, but More Slowly (The Washington Post version
notes the federal prison system is growing faster than state prisons and
local jails, with drug offenders making up 60 percent of the federal inmate
population. Only 23 percent of state prisoners have been convicted of
drug-related crimes - but the figures for local jails are omitted. Similarly,
the newspaper notes parole violators now account for about 35 percent of
inmate admissions, but doesn't say how many of such inmates were violated for
failing junk-science urine tests or committing other "non-drug" offenses that
were really drug offenses.)

Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 13:50:38 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: Prison Population Still Rising, but More Slowly
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: rlake@mapinc.org
Pubdate: Mon, 15 Mar 1999
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 1999 Creators Syndicate Inc.
Page: A02
Address: 1150 15th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20071
Feedback: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Author: Edward Walsh, Washington Post Staff Writer
Note: Staff writer Bill Miller contributed to this report.

PRISON POPULATION STILL RISING, BUT MORE SLOWLY

1.8 Million People Incarcerated in Federal, State or Local Facilities

The nation's incarcerated population continues to climb, although at a
slower rate than earlier in this decade, and now numbers more than 1.8
million people, the Justice Department reported yesterday.

The report, compiled by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, recorded changes
in the population of federal and state prisons and local jails between June
30, 1997 and June 30, 1998. It said the overall prison population grew by
4.4 percent. This was less than the average annual increase of 6.2 percent
since 1990 but still represented an average of 1,475 new inmates every week
during that 12-month period.

From 1985 to 1998, according to the report, the nation's prison population
more than doubled, from 744,208 inmates to 1.802 million, or one of every
150 Americans. During that same period, the incarceration rate--the number
of inmates per 100,000 people--also more than doubled, from 313 to 668.

The federal prison system is growing faster than state prisons and local
jails, driven by an increasing number of drug-related incarcerations. The
report said that from 1997 to 1998 the federal prison population increased
by 8.3 percent compared to growth rates of 4.1 percent for state prisons
and 4.5 percent for local jails. Still, state prisons, which hold 1.1
million inmates, dwarf the federal prison population of 107,381. Local
jails held 592,462 inmates as of last June 30, the report said.

Darrell K. Gilliard, a Justice Department statistician who compiled the
report, said that in "the federal system, drug offenders make up 60 percent
of the prison population. From 1990 to 1996, 72 percent of the growth in
the federal system was due to drugs."

Only 23 percent of state prisoners have been convicted of drug-related
crimes, Gilliard said.

The continued growth of the prison population comes amid generally
declining crime rates. Michael Rand, chief of the victimization statistics
branch of the Bureau of Justice Statistics, said that FBI statistics show
that violent crime dropped from a peak of 757 crimes per 100,000 people in
1992 to 610 crimes per 100,000 people in 1997, the lowest rate since the
mid-1980s.

There has been a similar steady drop in the rate of property crimes such as
burglary and theft since the early 1990s, Rand said.

Alfred Blumstein, a public policy professor at Carnegie Mellon University
in Pittsburgh, said several factors accounted for this seeming anomaly. He
said one is that drug-related crimes are not counted in the FBI statistics
or the Justice Department's annual survey of crime victims, which also
shows declining crime rates. If more people are being sentenced to prison
for drug offenses, which appears to be the case at least in the federal
system, they would not be counted in the crime rate statistics.

Another factor is that those who are sentenced to prison are staying there
longer than in the past.

"For the past few years the number of new admissions [to prison] has not
been going up, but what has been going up is time served," Blumstein said.
"Several factors contribute to that. Judges may be giving longer sentences.
Parole boards may be more reluctant to release people when they become
eligible. Parole authorities may be more ready to send people back to
prison for parole violations."

In addition, Blumstein said, the federal government offers financial
incentives to states that make their prisoners serve at least 85 percent of
their sentences.

James Alan Fox, dean of the College of Criminal Justice at Northeastern
University in Boston, said that violent offenders have accounted for the
largest part of the growth in the number of state prison inmates. "All this
really means is that we are sending a higher percentage [of criminals] to
prison," he said. "We still have a huge pool. The pool is smaller but the
percentage we're sending to prison is higher."

Fox said: "There is an eventual downside to this. What happens down the
road when the number of ex-cons coming out of prison with poor skills and
bad attitudes necessarily increases? Most prisoners don't go there forever.
They come out and often times they come out worse because we're spending
more money on construction of prisons than on treatment and programs in
prisons."

The prison report indicated that tougher attitudes by judges and prison and
parole authorities contribute to the growth in the number of inmates.
Gilliard said that in 1990 about 29 percent of prison admissions were
former inmates being returned for parole violations. He said parole
violators now account for about 35 percent of admissions.

In 1990, prisoners being released for the first time had served an average
sentence of 28 months, but by 1996 the average time served by first
offenders was up to 30 months, Gilliard said.

According to the report, the female prison population is growing faster
than the male prison population. Last year there were 82,716 female inmates
in state and federal prisons, an increase of 5.6 percent from 1997 while
the male prison population grew 4.7 percent to 1.1 million over the year.

The report also said that blacks made up 41 percent of the nation's local
jail inmates, about the same percentage as white jail inmates. But because
blacks make up a smaller percentage of the nation's population, the report
said they were six times more likely than whites and nearly 2.5 times more
likely than Hispanics to be held in a local jail on June 30, 1998.

California, with 158,000 inmates, and Texas, with 143,299 inmates, had the
largest state prison populations, while North Dakota, with 883 inmates, and
Vermont, with 1,312, had the smallest. The report said the number of people
under federal or state jurisdiction, including prison inmates and those
serving sentences outside of prisons, was 22,566 in Maryland, 28,681 in
Virginia and 8,679 in the District of Columbia. The District's prison
population declined by almost 11 percent between 1997 and 1998, the largest
drop in the country, while prison populations in Maryland and Virginia
remained about the same.

D.C. officials said the decline reflects two favorable criminal justice
trends. The number of reported crimes has fallen sharply and drug abuse
within the District has declined.

Crime and the use of crack cocaine peaked in the late 1980s and early
1990s, they said, with a corresponding surge those years in the prison
population.

Officials said, however, that they hadn't seen the Justice Department
report and couldn't confirm the exact numbers.

The incarceration rate for the District was 1,329 prisoners and others
under federal, state or local jurisdiction per 100,000 residents. But
Gilliard said this should not be compared to state incarceration rates,
which include rural and suburban areas where there is typically less crime
than in cities. He said the District's incarceration rate was probably
close to that of other large urban areas.

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

Inmate Population Reaches Record 1.8 Million (The New York Times version)

From: "Bob Owen@W.H.E.N." (when@olywa.net)
To: "_Drug Policy --" (when@hemp.net)
Subject: US Inmate Population Reaches Record 1.8 Million
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 19:09:16 -0800
Sender: owner-when@hemp.net

March 15, 1999
New York Times

Inmate Population Reaches Record 1.8 Million

By FOX BUTTERFIELD

The number of inmates in the nation's jails and prisons rose again last year,
to a record 1.8 million, though crime rates have dropped for seven straight
years, the Justice Department reported Sunday.

The number of Americans behind bars increased 76,700, or 4.4 percent, well
below the average annual increase of 7.3 percent between 1985 and 1998,
suggesting that the dramatic growth in incarceration has at least begun to
slow down.

But the 1.8 million total means that the incarceration rate has more than
doubled since 1985, to 668 inmates per 100,000 residents in 1998, from 313
per 100,000 in 1985, according to the Justice Department. And the total
inmate population is almost six times the figure of 330,000 in 1972, before
the prison boom started.

The report was prepared by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, a branch of the
Justice Department, and was based on the number of inmates on June 30, 1998.

Criminologists and law-enforcement officials generally agree that the
substantial growth in the number of inmates has helped reduce crime, at
least by keeping more violent criminals off the street. But they believe it
is difficult, if not impossible, to measure that impact precisely. There is
growing concern that the prison boom has taken on a life of its own, with a
built-in dynamic that will keep the inmate population growing for years even
if crime continues to fall, forcing cities and states to divert scarce
resources to building ever more jails and prisons.

In a new study of the factors in the continued expansion of the number of
prison inmates, Alfred Blumstein, a criminologist at Carnegie Mellon
University, and Allen J. Beck, a prison specialist at the Bureau of Justice
Statistics, calculated that 40 percent of the growth was attributable to
increases in the number of people actually sent to prison per arrest and 60
percent to longer time served by inmates. The study is to be published this
year by the University of Chicago Press.

Blumstein said the increase in commitments to prison per arrest was the
result of tougher attitudes toward criminals by both prosecutors and judges.

The longer time served by inmates, Blumstein said, is the result of several
things: tougher sentencing laws, longer sentences, greater reluctance by
parole boards to grant early release and the increased likelihood that once
prisoners are released they will be re-arrested for parole violations, often
technical violations like failing a urine test for drugs.

Little of the increase in the number of inmates is the outcome of better
police work, making more arrests per crime, or a growth in the number of
criminals being sent to prison, he said.

An additional factor driving the number of inmates up even as crime seems to
fall, Blumstein said, is that drug arrests are not counted as part of the
national crime rate reported by the FBI. That rate includes the violent
crimes of murder, robbery, rape and assault and the property crimes of
burglary, larceny and automobile theft.

But drug offenses accounted for the greatest share of the increase -- 29
percent -- in state prisoners of any single crime from 1980 to 1996. By
comparison, the crime that produced the next largest increase in state
inmates was rape, 11 percent, and then murder and assault, each at 10
percent. But all the violent crimes together were responsible for 43 percent
of the growth in state imprisonment.

The new Justice Department report found that there were 1,277,866 inmates in
state and federal prisons last year, an increase of 4.8 percent from a year
earlier, and 592,462 people in local city and county jails, a rise of 4.5
percent.

There were wide regional variations in imprisonment, as in crime, with the
Southern states generally having the highest rates, and the states in
northern New England and the northern Midwest having the lowest. Louisiana
had the highest incarceration rate, 709 inmates per 100,000, followed by
Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi and South Carolina. Minnesota had the lowest
rate, 117 inmates per 100,000, followed by Maine, North Dakota, Vermont and
New Hampshire.

Blacks made up 41.2 percent of the jail inmates in 1998, almost identical to
the share by whites, 41.3 percent, the report said. But relative to their
proportion of the population, blacks were six times more likely than whites
to be held in jail, the report said.

The number of women in state and federal prisons in 1998 rose 5.6 percent
over 1997, compared with a 4.7 rise in the number of men in prison. But
women still accounted for only 6.4 percent of the total of prisoners
nationwide in 1998.

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

Prison Population 1.8 Million, Rising (The Oakland Tribune version)

Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 18:51:45 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US CA: Prison Population 1.8 Million, Rising
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Jerry Sutliff
Pubdate: Mon, 15 Mar 1999
Source: Oakland Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 1999 MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers
Contact: eangtrib@newschoice.com
Address: 66 Jack London Sq., Oakland, CA 94607
Website: http://www.newschoice.com/newspapers/alameda/tribune/
Author: Matthew B. Stannard

PRISON POPULATION 1.8 MILLION, RISING

Officials Disagree On Causes And Effects

If you know 150 people, chances are at least one is doing time in
prison, according to a new government report.

More than 1.8 million people -- or one out of every 150 U.S. residents
-- were in state and federal prisons or local jails in the middle of
1998, according the U.S. Department of Justice report.

In other words, there are more people in jail now than there are
residents of San Diego.

The prison population is more than twice what it was in 1985 and the
largest in the nation's history. And it's still growing.

There are a lot of reasons for that growth, said statistician Darrell
Gilliard, who wrote the report. But with 52 jurisdictions reflected in
the final numbers, it's hard to nail down why the numbers continue to
climb.

Yet, others were eager to share their theories on the causes and
effects of the nation's booming prison population.

One is Jenni Gainsborough, a spokeswoman for the Campaign for an
Effective Crime Policy in Washington, D.C., which is critical of the
way the nation now handles criminals.

"The main reasons why we have this huge imprisoned population at the
moment really is sentencing length," Gainsborough said. "We're not
only locking up more people, but we're locking them up for a longer
and longer period of time."

The problem is particularly evident in California, Gainsborough said.
The report found there are more prisoners in California's state and
federal prisons than in any other jurisdiction -- 158,742.

Gainsborough, said California should consider repealing or modifying
its "Three Strikes, You're Out" law. A proposal to modify the law by
requiring a third strike to be a felony is already before the state
Senate.

"I think that would be a huge step forward to do that," she said.
"You've reached the frightening situation, if you lock too many people
up, that going to prison instead of being a shocking event just become
part of the growing-up experience."

Morgan Reynolds, director of the National Center for Policy Analysis
in Texas, takes the opposite view, Reynolds said get-tough laws and
increased jail time have reduced crime by taking criminals off the
streets and making potential or repeat offenders think twice before
committing more crimes.

But Gainborough and Reynolds do see eye-to-eye on at least one issue:
how best to reduce the national inmate population. "One of the things
that's clearly going on is more hardliners on crime are saying, 'maybe
this war on drugs needs to be re-examined,'" Reynolds said. "If we
could free up some of the bed space that would be released from drug
offender use, we could use that for the predatory crime
convictees."

That proposal won hearty support for Gainsborough, who also likes
Reynolds' suggested replacement for the war on drugs: a policy
allowing state and local governments to design their own treatment
programs.

"Ever the people who have made the argument that locking up a lot of
people is making the crime rate go down ... have said we've now gone
as far as we can with this," she said.

"With drugs, what we need to be focused on is treatment and prevention
and not just incarceration."

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

The Drug War Has Failed (A New York Times staff editorial in the
International Herald-Tribune agrees with the White House drug czar, General
Barry McCaffrey, when he says "We have a failed social policy and it has to
be re-evaluated." Unfortunately, the newspaper's opinion that that "The drug
war was created in reaction to a wave of urban violence triggered by crack
cocaine" is so patently ignorant that nobody but a moron would ever look to
the New York Times for insight again.)

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n297.a06.html
Newshawk: Peter Webster
Pubdate: 15 March 1999
Source: International Herald-Tribune
Page: OPED
Contact: iht@iht.com
Website: http://www.iht.com/
Copyright: International Herald Tribune 1999
Author: NY Times

THE DRUG WAR HAS FAILED

Almost 70 years after the failure of Prohibition, the much-trumpeted "war on
drugs," begun more than a decade ago, has itself hugely misfired. "We have a
failed social policy and it has to be re-evaluated," says Barry R. McCaffrey,
the four-star general in charge of national drug control policy.

The boomerang effect of the failed policy was richly detailed in recent
articles by Timothy Egan of The Times. School systems deteriorate while tax
dollars build new prisons. Municipal police forces have grown so militarized
that drug warrants are served in armored personnel carriers. Young mothers
are imprisoned for years for simple drug possession. Young black males in
California are now five times as likely to go to prison as to a state
university.

The drug war was created in reaction to a wave of urban violence triggered by
crack cocaine that ignited fears that crack addiction might spread widely.
Surveys now show, however, that the use of crack, by about 600,000 people
annually, has not changed in 10 years. Nor has the general level of illegal
drug use.

The best hope for controlling illicit drugs lies in treatment. Unfortunately,
as new prisons have gone up, treatment programs within them have declined.
In their obsession to control drug use by making war on it, Federal and state
legislators have turned the world's greatest democracy into its largest
prison system, where young adults are warehoused and the opportunity to treat
them is wasted.

As General McCaffrey says, "we can't incarcerate our way out of this
problem." But we can, he argues, focus punishment on drug dealers, not drug
users, while beginning to treat the hundreds of thousands of people in prison
with drug problems.

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

War On Drugs Has Woman In Hiding (The Coast Independent, on the Sunshine
Coast, in British Columbia, recounts the case of Renee Boje, 29, an American
on the Sunshine Coast who is facing deportation to California, where she's
wanted by the federal government on charges related to Peter McWilliams'
indictment for conspiracy to cultivate marijuana. Boje says she was hired
only to do free-lance artwork for a magazine Todd McCormick was publishing.
The B.C. Compassion Club Society is providing two lawyers to help Boje, who
faces an April 19 extradition hearing.)

Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1999 14:18:10 EST
Sender: friends@freecannabis.org
From: Richard Lake (rlake@mapinc.org)
To: Multiple recipients of list (friends@freecannabis.org)
Subject: Canada: War On Drugs Has Woman In Hiding
Newhawk: Chris Clay (chris@thecompassionclub.org)
Source: The Coast Independent (Sunshine Coast, B.C.)
Pubdate: Mon, 15 Mar 1999
Contact: indy@sunshine.net
Fax: (604) 886-4993
Mail: 292 Gower Point Road ,Gibsons, BC V0N 1V0
Author: Darah Hansen
Note: Our newshawk and webmaster has set up a website for this WOD victim
with more details, including information on her Legal Defense Fund at:
http://www.thecompassionclub.org/renee/

WAR ON DRUGS HAS WOMAN IN HIDING

An American woman living on the Sunshine Coast says she fears she'll become
the next victim in her country's war on drugs if she's forced back south of
the border.

Twenty-nine-year-old Renee Boje, who is currently keeping a low profile on
the Sunshine Coast, is facing deportation to California where she's wanted
on several federal charges related to the cultivation of marijuana. But she
says she's an innocent pawn caught in a political game between the zero
tolerance federal Drug Enforcement Agency and California state where
medical pot use is legal, and she's asking for help to mount an expensive
legal campaign to win her refugee status in Canada.

"I am hoping that Canada will provide me a safe haven, as it did for the
conscientious objectors to the Vietnam War," she said in an interview.

Troubles began for the soft spoken woman in 1997 when she started work for
Todd McCormick, a well-known medical marijuana advocate in California. An
artist by trade, Boje said she was hired to do free-lance artwork for a
magazine McCormick was putting together to promote his cause.

In July of that year she was arrested along with McCormick and seven others
at the house in a DEA raid and charged with conspiracy to cultivate
marijuana, posession, and intent to distribute.

Boje strongly denies all the charges.

In October she says her lawyer told her the matters against her had been
dropped and she went travelling across Canada, ending up in Roberts Creek
last month. There she was again picked up in a pot bust at a house on Leek
Road.

"I was at the wrong place at the wrong time again," she said.

Though she wasn't charged criminally in the Roberts Creek case, police did
discover an outstanding warrant against her in California relating to the
1997 charges. She was taken into the custody of Canadian Immigration. She
has since been released on a $5000.00 bond and faces an extradition hearing
April 19.

So far, Boje has received support from friends and sympathizers on the
Sunshine Coast. The case has also been taken up by the B.C. Compassion Club
Society, a non-profit Vancouver group that supports the leglization of
marijuana for medicinal purposes. Club founder Hilary Black called Boje a
"handy pawn" in the U.S. federal government's bid to bust the likes of Todd
McCormick, whom they see as a kind of drug lord.

"It's because they're quite keen on Todd, that's why they want her so
badly," Black said.

The Compassion Club has provided Boje with two lawyers - one to deal with
her criminal matters, a second for immigration. And, they are planning some
fundraising events to cover the legal costs.

***

From: creator@islandnet.com (Matt Elrod)
To: dpfca@drugsense.org
Subject: Re: DPFCA: Canada: War on drugs has woman in hiding
Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 11:53:15 -0800
Lines: 18
Sender: owner-dpfca@drugsense.org
Reply-To: creator@islandnet.com (Matt Elrod)
Organization: DrugSense http://www.drugsense.org/dpfca/

There is a picture of Renee at:

http://www.thecompassionclub.org/renee/

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

War On Marijuana Waste Of Time, Money - Critics (The Halifax Daily News,
in Nova Scotia, describes the enormous amount of resources spent by Canadian
police to detect, prosecute and punish marijuana growers such as Leland Dosch
of rural Saskatchewan. Police taped 2,000 hours of his family's phone calls,
studied his daily routine and even broke into his home to plant listening
devices. Then, in a carefully planned raid of his farmhouse, they found only
30 immature plants and a kilogram of herb. The Dosch case and others like
it - as well as the latest statistics showing marijuana accounting for
72 per cent of all drug offences in Canada - have some experts questioning
the wisdom of devoting so much time and money to battle a drug that many
people regard as harmless and millions of Canadians use. "There's nothing
more costly than a drug case for Canadian criminal justice," said Alan Young,
a professor at Osgoode Hall law school in Toronto.)

Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 04:51:32 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Canada: War On Marijuana Waste Of Time, Money - Critics
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: creator@mapinc.org
Pubdate: 15 Mar 1999
Source: Halifax Daily News (Canada)
Copyright: 1999 The Daily News.
Contact: letterstoeditor@hfxnews.southam.ca
Website: http://www.hfxnews.southam.ca/

WAR ON MARIJUANA WASTE OF TIME, MONEY - CRITICS

REGINA (CP) - For months, RCMP officers had a secret window into Leland
Dosch's life.

They taped his family's phone calls, studied his daily routine - even broke
into his home and planted listening devices.

Then, in a carefully planned manoeuvre, they raided his rural Saskatchewan
farmhouse and arrested him as a suspected drug trafficker.

It was hailed as the successful climax to a long, painstaking investigation
- another victory for the good guys in the war on drugs.

But after the intense surveillance, thousands of taped conversations, and
countless hours on the job, what did police have to show for their
Herculean efforts? Thirty immature marijuana plants and less than a
kilogram of pot.

The Dosch case and others like it have some experts questioning the wisdom
of devoting so much time and money to battle a drug that many people regard
as harmless and millions of Canadians use.

And with the latest statistics showing marijuana accounting for 72 per cent
of all drug offences, some suggest it's time to back off.

"There's nothing more costly than a drug case for Canadian criminal
justice," said Alan Young, a professor at Osgoode Hall law school in Toronto.

"When you get to drugs, you find that the cost of enforcing these laws is
extraordinary and, in my opinion, it saps the criminal justice system of
necessary resources to deal with serious predatory crime."

Young estimates authorities across the country spend $1 billion a year to
battle the drug trade - 70 per cent of that on marijuana.

"People have to start wondering whether this is money well spent," he said.

It's not just the cost that bothers Young, it's the consequences for civil
liberty.

"There are enormous invasions of privacy in the name of intelligence
gathering," Young said.

"You often come up with diddly-squat and what you have effectively done is
invade the privacy of dozens of people at dozens of locations in order to
find out that Joe had 200 plants growing in his basement."

Mark Brayford, the lawyer who represented Dosch, agrees the intrusion of
electronic surveillance is troubling.

"The vast majority of people whose voices are on wiretaps don't know it,"
he said.

Brayford pointed to the fact 2,000 hours of tape involving dozens of
innocent people yielded just 20 bits of incriminating evidence against Dosch.

Brayford questioned the severity of sentences for marijuana offences. He
noted in Saskatchewan, trafficking marijuana can net a longer sentence than
molesting a child.

For Dosch, who was convicted last month, it brought a 16-month jail term.

Umberto Iorfida, president of NORML Canada (National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws), said it's time to end the war against pot.

The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police is against legalization but
wants Ottawa to look at decriminalization in some instances.

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

Financial Notes - The Buying Power Of Illegal Narcotics (An op-ed in the
Independent, in Britain, by David Yallop, the author of "Unholy Alliance,"
says the international market for supposedly controlled substances amounts to
$500 billion a year. "Imagine a multi-national company so big that its annual
turnover is equal to China's gross national product. A company whose gross
turnover for just one financial year is sufficient to buy at current market
value the world's three largest public companies, General Electric, Royal
Dutch Shell and Microsoft. A company where just 10 days turnover is in excess
of the combined assets of the world's top 50 banks.")

Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 18:38:49 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: UK: Financial Notes - The Buying Power Of Illegal Narcotics
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Martin Cooke (mjc1947@cyberclub.iol.ie)
Pubdate: Mon, 15 March 1999
Source: Independent, The (UK)
Copyright: Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd.
Contact: letters@independent.co.uk
Website: http://www.independent.co.uk/
Author: David Yallop

FINANCIAL NOTES - THE BUYING POWER OF ILLEGAL NARCOTICS

IMAGINE A multi-national company so big and powerful that its annual
turnover is equal in size to China's gross national product, making
that company 11th in the world rankings ahead of the Netherlands,
Australia, Russia and India. A company whose gross turnover for just
one financial year is sufficient to buy at current market value the
world's three largest public companies, General Electric, Royal Dutch
Shell and Microsoft. A company that if it dipped into its petty cash
could in the same year buy Coca-Cola. A company where just 10 days
turnover is in excess of the combined assets of the world's top 50
banks.

Its current annual turn-over is $500bn. The cash mountain is derived
from just three assets. People, paper and product - illegal drugs.

The cartel of cartels - the drugs alliance that sits at the top of the
infrastructure of the illegal narcotic world has an inexhaustible
quantity of these three assets. They are endlessly available. The
product, whether cocaine, opium, heroin, marijuana or the range of
chemical drugs such as amphetamine, PCP, LSD, generates the paper, the
dollars, the euro, sterling and countless other currencies which feed
the machine - the people.

If the profits for the cartels are vast, so also are the quantities
that they pump into the market. If the annual supply of cocaine were
to be packed in 1.5kg bags - the size of a regular bag of flour - the
amount supplied to the United States each year would, if stood on top
of each other, be four times as high as Mount Everest. If the amount
supplied to the entire world were similarly stacked it would be 13
times as high as Everest.

The world that this power grouping at the top of the illegal narcotics
pyramid inhabits is a world where money by the ton is available for
whatever is needed. In Latin America the cartels buy presidents as
easily as they buy a customs official or a DEA (Drugs Enforcement
Agency) official. Or the technical know-how to create and operate "El
Gordo".

El Gordo, "the fat one", is the pet name for a computer regarded by
its creator as "out of this world". An apt description for a system
based on Nasa's computer network. No one makes a phone call, sends a
fax, uses a computer, in many a Latin American city, without "sharing"
the line with the fat one.

The fat one is linked to its brothers in Medellin,
Cali, Bogota, Caracas, Lima and La Paz. It has
immediate access to every scrap of information
contained on police and Intelligence computers in
Colombia and Venezuela, Peru and Bolivia: the
criminal records, identification data, status of all
criminal investigations.

A string of hotels, major business centres and industrial companies in
Italy. A huge office block on the Avenue des Champs-Elysees, another
in Rue de Ponthieu and a third in Rue de Berry in Paris. Prestige real
estate holdings in Montreal. A marina in Vancouver and large farm
holdings near Edmonton in Canada. Farm holdings are something that the
drug barons are particularly fond of. They own huge tracts of land in
virtually every country in South America.

In the United States drugs money has probably been used to buy five
huge apartment blocks in Washington, and in New York a residential
area of 250 acres situated at Oyster Bay. All of these assets are
owned by offshore nominees.

In Great Britain profits from the sale of narcotics are rumoured to
have been laundered to acquire substantial holdings in Canary Wharf,
Belgravia, Mayfair, Hampstead and the City, a piece of the Channel
Tunnel, a piece of the Japanese high speed rail network, a piece of
Sydney's business centre, two marinas in Auckland . . .

The above list of holdings represents less than 20 per cent of the
legal assets that have been acquired with dirty money.

David Yallop is the author of 'Unholy Alliance' (Bantam, 16 March,
UKP9.99)

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Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies, Year 5, No. 10 (A summary of European
and international drug policy news, from CORA, in Italy)

Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1999 17:29:29 +0100
To: CORAFax EN (cora.belgique@agora.stm.it)
From: CORAFax (cora.belgique@agora.stm.it)
From: "CRRH mailing list" (restore@crrh.org)
Subject: CORAFax #10 (EN)

ANTIPROHIBITIONIST OF THE ENTIRE WORLD ....
Year 5 #10, March 15 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.it/coranet
mailto:cora.news@agora.it

***

CORA NEWS

***

ITALY- The great praises for the Iranian regime that Mr. Pino Arlacchi
manifested in an interview to the Corriere della Sera are pure
monstrosities. They are generated by his unawareness of how the death
penalty is used in that country and how heroin that arrives on the European
market passes through Iran.

***

NEWS FROM THE WORLD

***

000523 03/03/99
E.U. / FRANCE
ADDICTION
LIBERATION

Dr. Kamel Abdennbi, a cardiologist and expert in diseases related to
tobacco smoking, says that cigarettes are just like heavy drugs and that
their cost in terms of public health is extremely high. This is why, he
says, disintoxication from tobacco should be refunded by the State.

***

000522 04/03/99
E.U. / GERMANY
HEALTH
FRANKFURTER 04,05,06/03 / DER SPIEGEL 08/03

Methadone is now under the spotlight. The official report on drugs says
that in 1998 deaths for methadone overdose have risen. There are two
principal causes to this situation: a generalised inexperience of
practicioners and the black market. The latter is favoured by permissive
rules like the one of multiple dosages or the one that does away with
having to keep obligatory lists of patients.

***

000527 08/03/99
E.U. / PORTUGAL
INITIATIVE
EL PAIS

In Portuguese prisons 70 % of the convicts are drug addicts, 11% are
positive to the AIDS test, 3% actually have ADIS and 25% have hepatitis.
The Defensor del Pueblo, having seen these figures, asks for 'a
depenalisation of personal use of drugs inside and outside the prisons'.

***

000528 08/03/99
E.U. / SPAIN
INITIATIVE
EL PAIS

Gonzalo Robles, of the Plan Nacional sobre Drogas, has officially rejected
the Andalusian project for controlled distribution of heroin. He says that
heroin is not a valid therapeutic alternative, minimizes the results of
other experiments in that direction and agrees with the prudent attitude of
the OMS.

***

000529 09/03/99
EUROPE / SWITZERL
INITIATIVE
NEUE ZUERCHER Z.

The Government has established very strict criteria for conducting its plan
of controlled distribution of heroin. Patients have to be 18 years old or
older (up to now the youngest were 20); they must have been heroin addicts
for at least two years; they must have tried and failed with other
therapies and, finally, show visible signs of physical, psycological or
social distress.

***

000520 07/03/99
E.U. / ITALY / SALERNO
JUSTICE
LA STAMPA

Three Carabinieri in civillian clothes entered a classroom without any
notice to handcuff and arrest a boy who had been accused of being a drug
pusher.

***

000521 03/03/99
E.U. / SPAIN
JUSTICE
EL PAIS

The Tribunal Supremo has established that the crime of drug traffic
automatically includes the one of smuggling. Before this decision an
investigated person could be tried and condemned for two different crimes.

***

000524 06/03/99
AMERICA / PARAGUAY
WAR ON DRUGS
THE ECONOMIST

In Paraguay the economic situation has been worsened by the Brazilian
crisis. At the same time Paraguay remains a major marijuana producer and an
important passage point for Bolivian cocaine travelling towards Europe.

***

000525 05/03/99
WAR ON DRUGS
FINANCIAL TIMES

The UN Global Programme Against Money Laundering, in Vienna, proposes to
form a 'league' of offshore centres that should have international
recognition and standard ways to control financial flows.

***

000526 05/03/99
E.U. / GB
WAR ON DRUGS
FINANCIAL TIMES

The British Government has asked that more severe rules be adopted to
prevent money laundering in its former colonies. In the Virgin Islands 47%
of the State balance comes from financial services, but only 3% is spent
according to law. In Turks and Caicos only seven people are in charge of
about 13 thousand banks and companies.

***

000530 10/03/99
ASIA / IRAN
WAR ON DRUGS
CORRIERE DELLA SERA

During the occasion of President Khatami's visit to Italy, the UN anti-drug
delegate Pino Arlacchi said: 'Teheran knows how to change, and it has
demonstrated this with its commitment to fight drugs'. 'The Ayatollahs are
dependable people, the UN should guarantee fairness for the change of power
in Iran'.

***

000519 08/03/99
AMERICA / BOLIVIA
WAR ON DRUGS
NEWSWEEK

Even though Colombia has recieved a 'certificate' from the USA for its
commitment to fight drugs, the presence of traffickers and coca plantations
is still consistent. US and Colombian agents have arrested 19 members of an
organisation worth 100 million Usd and that controled its trafficking via
Internet.

***

CLIPPINGS

ITALY- The new anti drug campaign can start thanks to state funding. 75%
of ten billion Lire will be divided between the Regions, while the rest
will be spent for Government projects.

***

CORAFax 1999

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[End]