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

New scanners refine airport luggage exams (The Oregonian says Portland
International Airport has installeda a pair of $1 million devices that employ
CAT-scan technology to check baggage for explosives and "narcotics" -
apparently the newspaper's attempt to make you think most of the contraband
being found isn't "marijuana.")

Newshawk: Portland NORML (http://www.pdxnorml.org/)
Pubdate: Tue, Mar 23 1999
Source: Oregonian, The (OR)
Copyright: 1999 The Oregonian
Contact: letters@news.oregonian.com
Address: 1320 SW Broadway, Portland, OR 97201
Fax: 503-294-4193
Website: http://www.oregonlive.com/
Forum: http://forums.oregonlive.com/
Author: Bill Stewart of The Oregonian staff

New scanners refine airport luggage exams

* Two devices that employ CAT-scan technology will make it easier to check
for explosives and narcotics in bags headed for cargo storage

Advice to Portland air travelers: Don't try to check through that suitcase
if you've packed explosives, dope or unprocessed film.

Portland International Airport is installing a pair of $1 million mechanical
detectives that use the technology from medical CAT scans to look for
contraband in luggage headed for aircraft cargo storage.

With a tightly focused but stronger X-ray than is used for purses and
carry-on bags, the equipment looks at several slices of an item rather than
taking an overall look. Its computer sounds the alert if it senses articles
of densities matching more than 100 different explosives. It also can be
programmed to look for narcotics.

Each machine can check more than 300 bags per hour.

"These things can look inside luggage just like a medical CAT scan looks
inside patients," said Mitch Barker, regional spokesman for the Federal
Aviation Administration in Renton, Wash.

Portland is in the second wave of U.S. cities to receive InVision
Technologies' CTX scanners, which have been purchased by the FAA. The
equipment, developed with federal research funding, evolved after the 1988
downing of a Pan Am jet in Scotland. In that case, the explosive apparently
was packed inside a portable radio that was in the plane's cargo area.

The FAA has bought about 150 of the scanners, and several European airports
have installed the same equipment.

Of course, explosives and drugs have been no-nos for a long time, but the
advice about unprocessed film comes directly from InVision Technologies,
which says the best strategy is to have the film in carry-on bags. A further
safeguard is to ask that security screeners hand-check the film.

The first of Portland's CTX 5500 scanners is located near the Alaska
Airlines ticket area, where it can be used to inspect luggage from curbside
check-ins or bags from the regular ticket counter.

Global Security Co. is training its personnel and after another week or two,
attention will be shifted to the second machine in the United Airlines
ticket area. It, too, will be installed between the curb and ticket counters.

Each scanner is about the size of a large van and weighs nearly 5 tons.
Barker said 96 scanners were operating at the start of this year, including
about 20 dual X-ray machines checking cargoes.

The Portland scanners use a highly directed X-ray, according to InVision
Technologies spokesman Bob Madden. "It is not like the 'scatter' X-ray used
on carry-on. It takes a few slicelike pictures of the bag and contents,"
looking for more than 100 types of explosives, he said. If the material
looks suspicious to the computer, an operator at a double-screen console is
alerted to call for a manual inspection.

And to keep operators alert, the machine occasionally tosses in a fake
object to see if it gets spotted.

Madden said the X-ray is so tightly focused that it would have to hit a
canister of raw film before any damage is done. That damage, according to a
warning issued six years ago by European photo organizations, would look
like a thin white line on prints made from the film and a faint line of
fogging on slide film. Developed film is in no danger.

InVision said the FAA requires stronger radiation for bags headed to a cargo
hold, and the impact on film could be cumulative if the traveler checks in
the bag several times.

The system is considered safe for magnetic tapes and computer disks.

Doug Roberts, spokesman for the Port of Portland, said the FAA might add a
third scanner later.

Barker said he cannot comment on future placement plans or on how the units
will be used. "Passengers should remember that everything they take onto an
airplane is subject to security checks," he said.

The general practice is to assign a scanner to the busiest airline at a
terminal, according to Barker. In Portland's case, because United and Alaska
airlines are busy but at opposite ends of the terminal, the program begins
with two scanners.

You can reach Bill Stewart at 503-294-7670 or by e-mail at
billstewart@news.oregonian.com

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

Eviction takes twist when home burns (The Oregonian says what began as an
eviction from a Southeast Portland home Monday turned into the discovery of a
suspected methamphetamine lab, which somehow led to a two-alarm fire that
consumed the $450,000 house. Firefighters, fearing toxic chemicals, watched
the house burn to the ground. Plus the Associated Press version, and
commentary from two skeptics familiar with the case and official testilying.)

Newshawk: Portland NORML (http://www.pdxnorml.org/)
Pubdate: Tue, Mar 23 1999
Source: Oregonian, The (OR)
Copyright: 1999 The Oregonian
Contact: letters@news.oregonian.com
Address: 1320 SW Broadway, Portland, OR 97201
Fax: 503-294-4193
Website: http://www.oregonlive.com/
Forum: http://forums.oregonlive.com/
Author: Peter Farrell of The Oregonian staff

Eviction takes twist when home burns

* Deputies suspect a drug lab is in the Southeast Portland home and call
firefighters, who can do little because of chemical danger

What began as an eviction from a Southeast Portland home Monday turned into
the discovery of a suspected drug lab, which in turn led to a two-alarm fire
that eventually consumed the house. Firefighters, fearing toxic chemicals,
could only watch the house burn to the ground.

The fire broke out at 4:10 p.m. as a fire crew, summoned to deal with
possible hazardous materials, stood across the street from the house at 5824
S.E. Yamhill St.

Sheriff's deputies had gone to the house about 11 a.m. to evict several
people who were living there. The house is owned by James Bunch, a son of
Ingerid Pearson, the woman convicted of animal abuse in 1997 in a case that
attracted wide attention. Neighbors said Pearson and several men apparently
lived at the house.

One neighbor said the large, three-story house had been a trouble spot for
the 10 years she has lived on the street.

Battalion Chief Mike McGuire, in charge at the fire scene, said firefighters
are restricted from entering buildings with working methamphetamine
laboratories. That meant firefighters worked from outside the house, even
though they knew the fire was burning from the basement up the walls to the
attic, he said. The house, built in 1902, did not have fire stops to limit
the spread of the flames.

"This is a controlled burn," McGuire said as flames roared through the first
floor. "We are going to let the building burn. This is going according to plan."

He said it was difficult for firefighters to watch the house burn, but it
was "the safest, most prudent thing to do." With no lives threatened, he
said, the major goal was to keep the fire from spreading. At one point,
gusts of wind carried firebrands across the street into trees, but
firefighters kept spraying the surrounding area.

The house is listed as containing 3,600 square feet of living space,
including the partially finished basement where the fire started. Officials
estimated the total damage to the house and contents at $450,000.

Neil Heesacker, fire bureau information officer, said the fire bureau does
not have expertise in shutting down a working methamphetamine lab, and when
the cooking of the chemicals is under way there is a danger of explosion.
Firefighters were waiting for Oregon State Police experts to arrive when
they saw smoke coming from the building.

Rosemary Prentice, who lives across the street, said neighbors had
complained to police about activities at the house, where they suspected
drugs were being sold.

***

Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 01:13:52 -0800
From: Paul Freedom (nepal@teleport.com)
Organization: Oregon Libertarians Patriots
To: Constitutional Cannabis Patriots (cp@telelists.com)
Subject: [cp] [Fwd: Re: Eviction takes odd twist when suspected drug house
burns to ground -fwd-]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Eviction takes odd twist when suspected drug house burns to
ground -fwd-
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 05:23:27 PST
From: "Don Braun" (oscarmeyer2@hotmail.com)
To: nepal@teleport.com, OregonRepublic@christiancommonlaw-gov.org,
News-Editorials@christiancommonlaw-gov.org, oscarmeyer2@hotmail.com

All the Hot News that fit to spit:
If you believe that AP story, I'll sell you a bridge!

PASS THIS "Rest of the Story" ON TO Anyone You know in OREGON/WASHINGTON

There was never ANY evidence of anything chemical-cooking in or around
that mansion. There are many many eye-witnesses to this absolute fact
that the house was NOT a drug house. Also, the house was almost empty
of furnishings since the first eviction notice came down on March 5.
(Who would ever locate or leave a meth lab cooking in a house under such
close surveillance? Also, all ocupaants knew that the sheriff was
coming, so "let's move out our belongings and leave a cooking meth lab
for the officials to find?" Duh!) The only thing that is cooking is
an illogical "cooked-up story" to cover up corruption and a take-down
of a brave senior-citizen lady on heart medication who has the nerve to
stand up for her rights and try to correct terrible grievances against
her by local "public servants." These liars are working hard to insure
their job security in the face of their legal cover-ups of their earlier
crimes. [The legal work intensified recently with the return of her son
from Europe who wanted the house bad enough that he served an Eviction
Notice on his own mother!]

Ask them WHERE in the 5500 sq ft. house was the "suspected lab?"
Why were NO chemicals ever in any evidence. The Haz Mat team did not
take anything called evidence out. All the "evidence" burned to the
ground. Firefighters under Battalion Chief McGuire better do a
complete investigation of the rubble of this mansion to avoid any
perception of corruption.

[There is a new term, "testilying," that has been coined in court when a
prosecutor testified that his office couldn't successfully prosecute if
his people could not lie! "How can we do our job, if we cannot lie?"
Prosecutor Norm Maleng of King County. (Kalina v. Fletcher)]

The "controlled arson" was done to hide the truth that the government is
out of lawful control. Ingerid (a 68 year old widow - now homeless) has
had several legal battle-royals going with the city and the county over
their illegal maneuvers since the "animal abuse" fiasco in May of 1996
in which she had a kennel for Rottweilers. The first case went down to
suppression of evidence; and, it was an illegal trespass that caused any
abuse of her prize show dogs out of the top lines in the world.

Of note, Ingerid was arsoned out of her wedding chapel in January of
1997 by the city and county (Klackamas) governments.

It's 5 AM i'mgoing to be downtown at 8. i'm going to bed!

Call Portland TV RAdio News Talk.

Don

***

From: Paul Freedom (nepal@teleport.com), by way of "Charles Bruce,
Stewart" (chuck@christiancommonlaw-gov.org)
To: OregonRepublic@christiancommonlaw-gov.org, NewsCCL
(News-Editorials@christiancommonlaw-gov.org), "Don Braun"
(oscarmeyer2@hotmail.com)
Subject: Eviction takes odd twist when suspected drug house burns
toground (fwd)
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 04:30:19 -0800

Eviction takes odd twist when suspected drug house burns to ground

The Associated Press
3/23/99 3:32 AM

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Firefighters stood by helplessly as a suspected drug
house burned to the ground hours after officials delivered an eviction notice
to its occupants.

Sheriff's deputies discovered the suspected drug lab Monday after they'd gone
to the house about 11 a.m. to evict several people living there.

Firefighters were waiting for Oregon State Police experts to arrive when they
saw smoke coming from the building about 4 p.m.

Battalion Chief Mike McGuire, in charge at the fire scene, said firefighters
are restricted from entering buildings with working methamphetamine
laboratories.

"This is a controlled burn," McGuire said as flames roared through the first
floor.

"We are going to let the building burn. This is going according to plan."

He said it was difficult for firefighters to watch the house burn, but it was
"the safest, most prudent thing to do."

The house is owned by James Bunch, a son of Ingerid Pearson, the woman
convicted of animal abuse in 1997 in a case that attracted wide attention.

Neighbors said Pearson and several men apparently lived at the house.

***

[YES, several people and a care-taker lived there!]

For removal from list or questions email:
chuck@christiancommonlaw-gov.org

***

Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 01:17:59 -0800
From: Paul Freedom (nepal@teleport.com)
Organization: Oregon Libertarians Patriots
To: Constitutional Cannabis Patriots (cp@telelists.com)
Subject: [cp] [Fwd: Ingerid]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Ingerid
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 13:43:10 EST
From: Dianna Roberts (rosewoodinc@juno.com)
To: nepal@teleport.com

--------- Begin forwarded message ----------
From: Dianna Roberts (rosewood@teleport.com)
To: "Don Braun" (oscarmeyer2@hotmail.com)
Cc: rosewoodinc@juno.com
Subject: Re: Ingerid
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 13:27:32 -0500 (EST)

Only one of the four televisions stations in Portland, Oregon have this
report on their web site. That site is: www.koin.com [Ch. 6] The AP
story below from the Oregonian has been pulled from Portland's [Oregon]
newspaper's web site as of 8:00 a.m. of the day of the article. This
home was built in 1902. The AP story says it like it was: "This is going
according to plan"! Mrs. Pearson had warned her son, and everyone else
involved, that this would happen -- that the city would never allow anyone
to occupy the home again, if he proceeded with the eviction of his mother.

Mrs. Pearson had deeded the property to her son retaining a lifetime estate
for herself. The entire eviction was a sham proceeding which had been
removed to Federal Court the previous week. There was NO local authority
for the Multnomah County Sheriff's Department to proceed with a Writ of
Execution and Sheriff Dan Noelle had been personally served with copies of
the filings in Federal Court. The television news reports are all false,
Mrs. Pearson had removed all valuables for safekeeping and all tenants had
moved.

Mrs. Pearson had requested the caretakers to remain. These caretakers
phoned Mrs. Pearson around 11:00 and reported that the Sheriff had ordered
them out NOT EVEN ALLOWING THE LADY TO TAKE HER PURSE. The caretakers
again phoned Mrs. Pearson at approx. 3:00 -- by 4:00 the news reported a
fire had broken out. News reports state contents were valued at $100,000
-- you would think they would reports reflect that the home had been
vacated by Mrs. Pearson -- where do they get this $100,000. of contents?
Unfortunately, the reports of no insurance are accurate.

Mrs. Pearson was suffering from shock and chest pains, but refused to enter
a hospital in Portland/Multnomah County in fear for her life. [The family
home had been purchased approx. 40 years ago and paid for primarily by her
mother and herself.]

Dianne Joyce Roberts
Portland, Oregon

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

California cop: Feds need to make a decision about marijuana (According to
the Associated Press, Walt Allen, vice president of the California Narcotic
Officers Association, says the federal government must soon decide whether to
ease restrictions on the use of pot so that states can figure out how to
implement voter-approved medical marijuana laws.)

From: "Bob Owen@W.H.E.N." (when@olywa.net)
To: "_Drug Policy --" (when@hemp.net)
Subject: California cop: Feds need to make a decision about marijuana
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 17:57:46 -0800
Sender: owner-when@hemp.net

The longterm decision has been made by voters. Feds need to wake up. -
Bob_O.

***

California cop: Feds need to make a decision about marijuana

The Associated Press
03/23/99 8:07 PM Eastern

OLYMPIA (AP) -- The federal government must soon decide whether to ease
restrictions on the use of pot so that states can figure out how to
implement voter-approved medical marijuana laws, a California drug cop said
Tuesday.

Walt Allen, vice president of the California Narcotic Officers Association,
said law enforcers in California, Washington and other states with
recently-approved medical marijuana laws are struggling to enforce new
statutes that conflict with the federal prohibition against marijuana.

Allen noted that California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who supported
that state's 1996 ballot initiative to legalize pot for medical use, has
appointed a task force to determine how to implement the law.

Roger Lake, president of the Washington State Narcotics Investigators
Association, said a similar commission should be appointed to help implement
Initiative 692, approved last fall by 59 percent of the voters.

I-692 allows people suffering from certain terminal and debilitating
illnesses to grow and smoke pot. Physicians who advise qualifying patients
about the risks and benefits of marijuana use also are protected from
prosecution.

A bill pending in the Washington House of Representatives would authorize
the Department of Health to write administrative rules clarifying how the
law works. But state law requires a two-thirds majority of each house to
amend an initiative within two years of its approval, so the measure's
prospects remain uncertain.

Advocates for medical marijuana say the most important action must come from
the federal government. They want the Food and Drug Administration to
reclassify marijuana from Schedule I -- illegal drugs -- to Schedule II,
drugs that doctors can prescribe.

Law enforcers just want a decision "one way or the other," Allen said.

***

When away, you can STOP and RESTART W.H.E.N.'s news clippings by sending an
e-mail to majordomo@hemp.net. Ignore the Subject: line. In the body put
"unsubscribe when" to STOP. To RESTART, put "subscribe when" in the e-mail
instead (No quotation marks.)

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

A Drug War Fought On Ideology (Los Angeles Times columnist Robert Scheer
notes the Institute of Medicine report last week found that marijuana isn't
addictive or a gateway to harder drugs, and the effects of marijuana smoking
are no more threatening than smoking cigarettes. So why then is the
cultivation, trade and use of pot regarded as a crime? Every other serious
study of the effect of marijuana has concluded the same thing. The huge and
highly profitable antidrug war industry is hooked on marijuana as
justification for its enormously expensive and disruptive crusade. Madness
can properly be defined as a state of mind in which facts and logic are of no
consequence. What better way to describe our failed drug policy?)

Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 09:51:56 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US CA: OPED: A Drug War Fought On Ideology
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Jim Rosenfield
Pubdate: March 23, 1999
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 1999 Los Angeles Times.
Contact: letters@latimes.com
Fax: (213) 237-4712
Website: http://www.latimes.com/
Forum: http://www.latimes.com/HOME/DISCUSS/
Author: Robert Scheer

A DRUG WAR FOUGHT ON IDEOLOGY

A drug war fought on ideology alone when
science says marijuana is medically useful
the antipot warriers turn deaf.

Darn, the facts do get in the way. What are the drug warriors to do
now that the most thorough scientific survey ever of the medical
consequences of marijuana use concluded this: Marijuana eases pain and
quells nausea in cancer and AIDS patients and isn't addictive or a
gateway to harder drugs.

"Withdrawal symptoms are relatively mild and shortlived," according to
the report of the federal Institute of Medicine, and "there is no
conclusive evidence that marijuana acts as a 'gateway' drug."

But if the effects of marijuana smoking are no more threatening than
smoking cigarettes, as the panel of 35 experts announced last week
after an 18 month study commissioned by federal drug czar Barry R.
McCaffrey, then why is the cultivation, trade and use of pot regarded
as a crime?

Each year, more than half a million Americans are arrested on
marijuana related charges even though, as this report confirms, their
use of the drug poses no substantial risk to themselves or society.
That also has been the conclusion of every other serious study of the
effect of marijuana.

Eighty million Americans have used marijuana and most have shown no
inclination to move on to harder drugs or to act in antisocial ways.
But the huge and highly profitable antidrug war industry is hooked on
marijuana as justification for its enormously expensive and disruptive
crusade. That's how they get the alarming numbers of "drug users,"
which masks the fact that harder drug use has declined and effects a
much smaller percentage of the population.

This explains why McCaffrey, who heads the White House Office of Drug
Enforcement, now dissembles instead of facing up to the policy
implications of a report he commissioned. When he announced this study
two years ago, it was in an effort to counter claims of those who had
successfully rallied voters in seven states to pass referendums
legalizing the medical use of marijuana.

At the time, McCaffrey, calling for "science not ideology" to settle
the medical marijuana debate, predicted the therapeutic claims made
for the drug would prove bogus and confirm his oftrepeated statement
that marijuana is the major gateway drug.

But McCaffrey was proved wrong on both counts.

Marijuana, as has been widely acknowledged throughout the world for
thousands of years, is a relatively benign euphoric. It was grown and
used by our founding fathers and was legal throughout most of this
great nation's history. It is certainly less harmful than alcohol,
which kills 100,000 people a year, or cigarettes, which account for
four times that number of deaths.

McCaffrey should now concede that marijuana is not a gateway drug and
that its use should be decriminalized. Instead, he acknowledged only
the report's warning that smoking harms the respiratory system. Which
argues that if marijuana is ingested through a vaporizer or in a baked
brownie, it is safe. Anyway, we don't arrest people for smoking
tobacco, preferring education over imprisonment as a means of persuasion.

Our drug war is based on lies that confuse rather than educate the
public, particularly the young. Better to tell them the truth: Any
drug can be abused, be it marijuana, cigarettes or beer.

But truth is abhorrent to the drug war hawks in Congress. Rep. Bill
McCullum (RFla.), who chairs the House subcommittee on crime,
condemned the current report, saying, "When smoking a dangerous and
highly addictive drug is labeled 'therapeutic,' we are sending the
wrong message to our youth." He obviously had not bothered to read
even the summary of the report that clearly concludes that marijuana
is not "highly addictive."

For drug war veteran Rep. Bob Barr (RGa.), this is just the problem:
The scientists wasted our money because they came to the wrong
conclusions. Barr, who has led the fight to spend $11 billion a year
on the drug war, condemned this scientific study as an egregious waste
of funds: "You cannot consistently send a message to our young people
that the use of mind altering drugs is wrong and at the same time spend
nearly $1 million of taxpayers' hardearned money to fund studies
looking for ways to justify the legalization of marijuana."

No, much better to spend many times that amount locking up those same
taxpayers for preferring marijuana to bourbon. Madness can properly be
defined as a state of mind in which facts and logic are of no consequence.
What better way to describe our failed drug policy?

Robert Scheer Is a Times Contributing Editor. Email: Rscheer@aol.com

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

Study: Caffeine not as addictive as, say, cocaine (According to the
Associated Press, a study funded by the French coffee industry and released
Monday at the American Chemical Society's annual meeting in Los Angeles
indicates that drinking up to three cups of coffee a day has no effect on the
part of the brain responsible for addiction. And it may actually be good for
you - if you're a rat. But caffeine studies are all over the map when it
comes to health effects. One skeptic is Roland Griffiths, a professor of
psychiatry and neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University, who says "there is
pretty substantial literature in animals and humans showing chronic
administration of caffeine produces acute dependency syndrome.")

From: "Bob Owen@W.H.E.N." (when@olywa.net)
To: "_Drug Policy --" (when@hemp.net)
Subject: Study: Caffeine not as addictive as, say, cocaine
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 18:15:18 -0800
Sender: owner-when@hemp.net

Study: Caffeine not as addictive as, say, cocaine

By Deborah Hastings, Associated Press, 03/23/99 01:05

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Caffeine is not addictive for most people, a new study
concludes, and has little effect on human health. No, really.

According to a much-promoted French study released Monday during the
American Chemical Society's annual meeting, drinking up to three cups of
coffee a day has no effect on the part of the brain responsible for
addiction. And it may actually be good for you.

If you're a rat.

After spending two years with 30 rodents, researcher Astrid Nehlig of the
French National Health Medical Research Institute found that moderate
consumption increases energy and renders addiction "quite unlikely."

The study was funded by the French coffee industry and her employer.

Bank loan officer Laura Comstock doesn't hesitate when asked if she agrees
with Nehlig's conclusions.

"No," she replies flatly.

Comstock must have at least two caffeinated drinks - usually tea or Diet
Coke - to get through the day, plus a midmorning cup of joe.

"I get headaches if I don't drink coffee," she said, seated at a coffee
house during lunch, a cup of decaf in hand. "There's got to be something to
that."

According to Nehlig, seven or eight cups of java would have to be consumed
in quick succession to create the same addictive brain activity as a low
dose of, say, morphine.

"Addiction to caffeine is not the same as addiction to methamphetamines or
cocaine or morphine," Nehlig said.

"I'm not denying that there can be a dependence on caffeine, I'm just saying
that there is no adverse physical effects to using caffeine in moderate
levels," the researcher said.

Caffeine studies are all over the map when it comes to health effects. Some
say the drug increases productivity. The Center for Science in the Public
Interest, a Washington-based watchdog group, said it may degenerate bone
mass and endanger fetuses.

Roland Griffiths, a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at Johns
Hopkins University, has done extensive research on caffeine. He's skeptical
of Nehlig's conclusions.

"When you start extrapolating from rats to humans, all kinds of things
change," he said. And "there is pretty substantial literature in animals and
humans showing chronic administration of caffeine produces acute dependency
syndrome."

Georgina Rocha, who operates an outdoor coffee stand in Los Angeles, sees
some of that every day. Does she believe caffeine is healthy for her
customers?

"When I drink it, I get all jumpy and hyper, so it can't be good for them,
either," she said.

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

Actor died on day of scheduled court appearance in drug case (The Associated
Press says David Strickland, an actor on television's "Suddenly Susan,"
apparently committed suicide by hanging himself in a Las Vegas motel room the
night before he was due to give a Los Angeles court a progress report on the
coerced treatment he was sentenced to after pleading no contest to cocaine
possession. Warner Bros. and NBC said production of "Suddenly Susan" was
being halted indefinitely.)

From: "Bob Owen@W.H.E.N." (when@olywa.net)
To: "_Drug Policy --" (when@hemp.net)
Subject: Actor died on day of scheduled court appearance in drug case
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 18:05:52 -0800
Sender: owner-when@hemp.net

Actor died on day of scheduled court appearance in drug case

By ROBERT MACY
The Associated Press
03/23/99 8:28 PM Eastern

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- David Strickland, the "Suddenly Susan" actor who
apparently committed suicide by hanging himself in a motel room, was due in
court in a drug case on the day he was found dead, records show.

Police shed no new light Tuesday on Strickland's death, which was discovered
Monday morning. But records reviewed in Los Angeles showed that he was
supposed to have appeared in court there on that day.

Strickland was arrested Oct. 31 for cocaine possession and pleaded no
contest on Dec. 21, records show. He was put on probation for three years
and ordered into a rehabilitation program. He was due in court for a
progress report on that program.

Angela Cheung, an attorney who was representing Strickland, declined
comment.

Police said there nothing to indicate foul play. No note was found, there
was no indication of drugs, and Strickland did not place any long-distance
calls from his room, Lt. Wayne Petersen said.

"We found nothing to indicate anything but a suicide," he said.

Strickland, 29, played the role of Todd, a music critic in NBC's "Suddenly
Susan," and was in "Forces of Nature," the No. 1 box office movie last
weekend.

Warner Bros. and NBC said production of "Suddenly Susan" was being halted
indefinitely.

"I am devastated by the loss of my best friend whose talent and humor graced
all who knew him," series star Brooke Shields said in a statement. She urged
the media not to pry into the death, adding "I pray to God David's pure
heart is now at peace."

Authorities and the actor's acquaintances provided no clues on possible
reasons for the suicide.

Strickland was born in Glen Cove, N.Y., and moved to Pacific Palisades near
Los Angeles while he was in high school. After graduation, he pursued an
acting career.

He guest-starred in episodes of "Roseanne" and "Dave's World." He also had
recurring roles on "Sister, Sister" and "Mad About You," playing Paul
Reiser's co-worker. He also had a role in the 1998 independent film
"Delivered."

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

Police Arrest Singer Ray Price On Marijuana (The Associated Press says the
Grammy Award-winning country singer known for hits such as "For the Good
Times" and "Release Me" was arrested last Friday at his ranch near Mount
Pleasant, Texas, charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia
and fined $700.)

Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1999 22:31:48 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US TX: Wire: Police Arrest Singer Ray Price On Marijuana
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: ifcb456@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu
Pubdate: Tue, 23 Mar 1999
Source: Associated Press
Copyright: 1999 Associated Press

POLICE ARREST SINGER RAY PRICE ON MARIJUANA CHARGES

MOUNT PLEASANT, Texas - Grammy Award-winning country singer Ray Price has
been arrested on a marijuana charge near his Texas ranch, police said.

Price, known for such hits as "For the Good Times" and "Release Me,"
was arrested last Friday, charged with possession of marijuana and
drug paraphernalia and fined $700.

Mount Pleasant police refused comment on the case Tuesday.

Price was born in Perryville but now lives on a ranch near Mount
Pleasant.

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

Marijuana-Scented Cigarettes Tested (According to the Associated Press, the
Saint Paul Pioneer Press claims that tobacco industry documents reveal Brown
& Williamson Tobacco Corp. sought to cash in on the popularity of marijuana
in the 1970s by developing a cigarette that mimicked the herb's smell. A
company chemist noted in a June 3, 1974, memo that mixing Virginia and
Turkish tobaccos, pekoe teas, alfalfa and oregano produced "a foreign taste,
liked by some, with a sidestream aroma easily mistaken for marijuana.")

Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 09:50:10 EST
Originator: friends@freecannabis.org
Sender: friends@freecannabis.org
From: Fraglthndr@aol.com
To: Multiple recipients of list (friends@freecannabis.org)
Subject: Fwd: Marijuana-Scented Cigarettes Tested

Marijuana-Scented Cigarettes Tested

.c The Associated Press

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., seeking ways to
cash in on the popularity of marijuana in the 1970s, developed a cigarette
that mimicked the drug's smell, according to industry documents.

A company chemist noted in a June 3, 1974, memo that mixing Virginia and
Turkish tobaccos, pekoe teas, alfalfa and oregano produced ``a foreign taste,
liked by some, with a sidestream aroma easily mistaken for marijuana.''

``Since the aroma of marijuana is easily recognized and difficult to cover
up, a marketable product of similar aroma should have great appeal to
marijuana smokers,'' the chemist wrote. ``Alternate uses might include a
curiosity item, research placebo or educational tool.''

Company spokesman Mark Smith told the Saint Paul Pioneer Press in a story
published today that the idea went nowhere. Smith said it was ``independent
thinking'' by an employee and the kind of ill-conceived idea that could show
up in the files of any industry.

``The proof of whether a company's responsible or not lies in the fact that
these ideas never went very far,'' Smith said.

Smith said the company currently has ``absolutely zero interest in
marijuana'' and that he had no information on what happened to the chemist
involved.

The memo was among confidential industry documents made public as a result of
the state's $6.6 billion legal settlement with the cigarette makers.

AP-NY-03-23-99 0644EST

Copyright 1998 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP
news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise
distributed without prior written authority of The Associated Press. >>

From: AOLNews@aol.com
Subject: Marijuana-Scented Cigarettes Tested
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 06:45:00 EST

Marijuana-Scented Cigarettes Tested

c The Associated Press

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., seeking ways to
cash in on the popularity of marijuana in the 1970s, developed a cigarette
that mimicked the drug's smell, according to industry documents.

A company chemist noted in a June 3, 1974, memo that mixing Virginia and
Turkish tobaccos, pekoe teas, alfalfa and oregano produced ``a foreign taste,
liked by some, with a sidestream aroma easily mistaken for marijuana.''

``Since the aroma of marijuana is easily recognized and difficult to cover up,
a marketable product of similar aroma should have great appeal to marijuana
smokers,'' the chemist wrote. ``Alternate uses might include a curiosity item,
research placebo or educational tool.''

Company spokesman Mark Smith told the Saint Paul Pioneer Press in a story
published today that the idea went nowhere. Smith said it was ``independent
thinking'' by an employee and the kind of ill-conceived idea that could show
up in the files of any industry.

``The proof of whether a company's responsible or not lies in the fact that
these ideas never went very far,'' Smith said.

Smith said the company currently has ``absolutely zero interest in marijuana''
and that he had no information on what happened to the chemist involved.

The memo was among confidential industry documents made public as a result of
the state's $6.6 billion legal settlement with the cigarette makers.

AP-NY-03-23-99 0644EST

Copyright 1998 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP
news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise
distributed without prior written authority of The Associated Press.

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

Candidate Has Two Kinds Of Aspirations (The Des Moines Register interviews
Mark Kennis of Grimes, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for
president of the United States who was charged last week with manufacturing
marijuana and conspiring to distribute it to a minor. Kennis, who is also a
former independent candidate for Iowa governor, uses the herb to relieve pain
from diabetes and heart problems. During his campaign he says he will
advocate the "legalization" of marijuana.)

Date: Thu, 1 Apr 1999 04:39:08 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US IA: Candidate Has Two Kinds Of Aspirations
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Carl Olsen
Pubdate: 23 Mar 1999
Source: Des Moines Register (IA)
Copyright: 1999, The Des Moines Register
Contact: letters@news.dmreg.com
Website: http://www.dmregister.com/
Author: Jason Clayworth

CANDIDATE HAS TWO KINDS OF ASPIRATIONS

Mark Kennis is vying for the Democratic nomination for president of the
United States, and unlike the man he hopes to replace, he admits to inhaling.

The 51-year-old Grimes man was charged last week with manufacturing
marijuana and conspiring to distribute it to a minor. He wouldn't comment
on the charges against him, but he said that he started smoking marijuana
at age 19, and that he has used the drug to relieve pain suffered from
diabetes and heart problems.

The former independent candidate for governor said Monday that he will seek
the Democratic nomination for president, and that during the campaign he
will advocate legalization of marijuana.

"It would give Iowa farmers something to grow and it would be a benefit to
people," Kennis said.

Kennis is also known as host of "Big People News," a public-access
television show that focuses on discrimination against large people. Monday
night, he said marijuana use has helped him control his weight.

He and four other people, including his son David Kennis, 24, of Grimes,
were arrested on drug charges Friday. Police said officers, acting on a
tip, went to the family's home and found the five in the living room,
smoking marijuana in the presence of a 15-year-old, who Kennis said Monday
was his son Matthew. They also said they found evidence that marijuana had
been grown in the home. Kennis and most of the others have been released
from jail after posting bond.

When Kennis ran for governor last year, he came in fifth place with 1,760
votes, far behind the nearly, 500,000 garnered by Democrat Tom Vilsack.
But he predicted he would win the Iowa presidential caucuses next February.

"If I win in Iowa, I think it will bring attention nationwide on marijuana
use."

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

District Replaces DARE Program (The Chicago Tribune says the Aptakisic-Tripp
School District 102 Board of Education announced plans Monday night in
Buffalo Grove to replace its Drug Abuse Resistance Education program with a
new class called C.O.D.E., which stands for Community Organized Drug
Education.)

Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 13:04:04 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US IL: District Replaces DARE Program
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Steve Young (theyoungfamily@worldnet.att.net)
Pubdate: Tues, 23 March 1999
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 1999 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact: tribletter@aol.com
Website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Forum: http://www.chicagotribune.com/interact/boards/
Author: Ted Kleine

DISTRICT REPLACES D.A.R.E. PROGRAM

BUFFALO GROVE -- The Aptakisic-Tripp School District 102 Board of Education
announced plans Monday night to replace its D.A.R.E. program with a new
class called C.O.D.E., which stands for Community Organized Drug Education.

C.O.D.E. will involve pupils more and will include more lessons, said
Officer Jim Yester of the Buffalo Grove Police Department.

There will be 30 lessons over a six-week period. Pupils will test out vision
goggles, which simulate the blurred vision of a drunk. They will write a
code of conduct for themselves, and parents will be invited to a family
forum at the school.

Meridian Middle School Principal Susan Mann said the C.O.D.E. program
emphasizes all-around health and relationships, instead of just drugs and
alcohol prevention.

"It causes the students to be more involved," Mann said.

About 100 pupils will participate in a pilot program this spring. All pupils
are expected to participate starting in spring of 2000.

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

Former Officer Gets A Life Term In 10 Murders For A Drug Gang (The New York
Times says John Cuff, a former housing police officer in the Bronx, avoided
the death penalty Monday by pleading guilty to Federal charges that he had
killed 10 people after he was recruited by the Preacher Crew.)

Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 09:51:49 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US NY: Former Officer Gets A Life Term In 10 Murders For A
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Jim Galasyn
Pubdate: Mar 23, 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: Benjamin Weiser

FORMER OFFICER GETS A LIFE TERM IN 10 MURDERS FOR A DRUG GANG

A former housing police officer in the Bronx avoided the death penalty
Monday by pleading guilty to Federal charges that he had killed 10
people while he was a member of a violent drug gang.

The plea bargain averted what would have been the first Federal death
penalty trial in Manhattan in more than 40 years. The former officer,
John Cuff, agreed to serve a life prison term, and Mary Jo White, the
United States Attorney in Manhattan, said she would drop her request
for the death penalty. Cuff will be sentenced on June 21.

Jury selection in the widely watched case had been scheduled to begin
today in United States District Court in Manhattan.

"He decided to save his own life," said Carl J. Herman, one of Cuff's
lawyers, after Monday's hearing. His other lawyer, Irving Cohen, said
Cuff had "appropriately assessed the risks and determined that this
was the proper thing to do for himself."

Cohen said that if the Government had not been seeking the death
penalty, "in all likelihood we would have proceeded to trial."

A 1996 Federal racketeering indictment accused Cuff of helping to run
the Preacher Crew, a gang described by the authorities as a violent
and profitable narcotics organization that had terrorized parts of the
Bronx and Manhattan for years.

Cuff had been a housing police officer from about 1982 until 1986, and
during that period he was recruited into the gang by its leader,
Clarence Heatley, law enforcement officials said at the time of the
indictment.

While Cuff was off duty as an officer, they said, he acted as
Heatley's bodyguard and driver, and one said there had been "some use
made of his official position" as an officer to get drug money paid on
time.

A Federal prosecutor, Sharon L. McCarthy, described Cuff in court
yesterday as a kind of enforcer for Heatley, who had also faced
capital charges. Heatley pleaded guilty last month, admitting
involvement in 13 killings and agreeing to a mandatory life prison
sentence. Cuff's plea bargain means that 16 of the 18 indicted gang
members have pleaded guilty; the trials for the 2 remaining indicted
members have been scheduled for this month.

Responding to questions yesterday by Judge Michael B. Mukasey, Cuff
admitted that he had participated in the murders of members of both
his own and rival gangs. Some of the killings occurred in the gang's
headquarters, in the basement of an apartment building at 2075 Grand
Concourse in the Bronx, the evidence showed.

Cuff gave clipped replies as Judge Mukasey pushed for a fuller account
of his role in the crimes. When Cuff said, for example, that he had
been present at the murder of two men in December 1993 and then helped
dispose of their bodies, the judge asked what his actual role had been.

"I saw that it got done," Cuff said. "I supervised it."

In another killing, Cuff corrected the Government's version of events.

Ms. McCarthy, the prosecutor, said Cuff had shot a man twice in the
head. Not true, Cuff said.

"I twisted his neck," he said. "I choked him."

Ms. McCarthy told the judge that his admission to involvement in the
crime was sufficient for the guilty plea to be legal.

After killing yet another man, Cuff admitted, he had supervised the
dismembering of the body. He said that he had shot the man in the head
once and four times in the chest and then supervised as the victim was
"chopped up."

Cuff had been charged under a 1988 law, sometimes called the drug
kingpin law, that permits Federal prosecutors to seek capital
punishment for killings committed in furthering a major drug
trafficking operation.

Ms. White had justified seeking the death penalty on a number of
grounds, including Cuff's former role as a police officer, his
premeditation in the killings, his low potential for rehabilitation
and his lack of remorse.

In one case, prosecutors wrote, Cuff and Heatley had shared a
champagne toast to celebrate one of their killings.

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

Pinellas Teacher Busted On Drug Charges (UPI says Sofia Forte, a 29-year-old
teacher in Pinellas County, Florida, is facing drug charges after a police
dog found cocaine in the teacher's lounge at Osceola Middle School.)

Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 06:02:39 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US FL: Wire: Pinellas Teacher Busted On Drug Charges
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: 23 Mar 1999
Source: United Press International
Copyright: 1999 United Press International

PINELLAS TEACHER BUSTED ON DRUG CHARGES

SEMINOLE, Fla. March 23 (UPI) - A 29-year-old Pinellas County teacher is
facing drug charges after a police dog found cocaine in the teacher's
lounge at Osceola Middle School.

Investigators say Sofia Forte, who has been placed on paid leave from her
job, was afraid the drug-sniffing canine would find the cocaine during
Parent's Night, so she hid the drugs in the lounge.

She is accused of having about a gram of powder cocaine and a straw coated
with cocaine residue.

Forte's arrest marked the first time a Pinellas County teacher has been
accused of having drugs on campus.

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

Puerto Rico Police Suspended On Drugs Allegations (Reuters says eight Puerto
Rico commonwealth police agents allegedly offered protection to drug dealers,
and were involved in importing drugs into Puerto Rico from Caribbean islands
such as St. Croix and Curacao, as well as from Mexico.)

Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 06:28:10 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Puerto Rico: Wire: Puerto Rico Police Suspended On Drugs
Allegations
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: Tue, 23 Mar 1999
Source: Reuters
Copyright: 1999 Reuters Limited.

PUERTO RICO POLICE SUSPENDED ON DRUGS ALLEGATIONS

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, March 22 (Reuters) - Eight Puerto Rico commonwealth
police agents were suspended without pay on Monday for alleged
drug-trafficking offences, in what authorities called the force's largest
disciplinary action.

"This constitutes the largest suspension of police agents at any one time in
the history of the police force," said Police Superintendent Pedro Toledo in
announcing the culmination of an investigation that began in 1997.

Police alleged the eight suspended agents were part of a gang of corrupt
officers from in and around Caguas, a growing city on the southern border of
the San Juan metropolitan area. Six of the suspended officers were from a
drug trafficking investigations unit.

Authorities alleged the suspended agents offered protection to drug dealers,
and were involved in importing drugs into Puerto Rico from Caribbean islands
such as St. Croix and Curacao, as well as from Mexico.

Only two of the agents had criminal charges filed against them on Monday,
but Toledo said charges were expected against the other suspended officers.

Officer Edwin Rivera Jurado, the alleged leader of the gang, was charged
with bribery and cover-up, while Jose Dones Torres was charged with bribery,
officials said.

Police identified the other officers suspended as: Jaime Fortuno Martinez,
Aldaberto Fuentes Medina, Jose Candelaria Lopez, Edwin Nunez Cotto, Wilfredo
Silva Reyes, and Jose Miranda Rodriguez.

Officials said the gang could involve 14 people and that more arrests were
expected.

Earlier this month, four police officers were arrested by FBI agents for
allegedly providing protection to drug traffickers operating on the
southwest coast of Puerto Rico.

They were charged with accepting $5,000 each to offer traffickers escort
while transporting 200 pounds (90 kg) of cocaine between the towns of Santa
Isabel and Coamo.

Puerto Rico is attractive to drug traffickers as a backdoor to the lucrative
U.S. mainland market. Because it is a U.S. territory, items moving from
Puerto Rico to the U.S. mainland do not have to pass through U.S. Customs.

Investigators say many of the drugs imported into Puerto Rico wind up being
smuggled to cities along the U.S. East Coast.

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

Scientists Find How Brain Chemical Acts Like Pot (The San Jose Mercury News
says scientists funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse announced
Monday that their research, to be published in the April issue of the journal
"Nature-Neuroscience," shows they have discovered how one of the body's
natural cannabinoids, anandamide, counteracts another brain chemical,
dopamine. Their research suggests that natural THC-like compounds may prove
useful in the development of medications for treating diseases that seem to
involve dopamine imbalances in the brain, such as schizophrenia and
Tourette's syndrome.)

Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 20:33:29 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US CA: Scientists Find How Brain Chemical Acts Like Pot
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Marcus/Mermelstein Family 
Pubdate: 23 Mar 1999
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 1999 Mercury Center
Contact: letters@sjmercury.com
Website: http://www.sjmercury.com/
Author: Usha Lee McFarling and Lisa M. Krieger

SCIENTISTS FIND HOW BRAIN CHEMICAL ACTS LIKE POT

WASHINGTON -- When scientists recommended the medicinal use of marijuana's
ingredients last week, they were relying on a little-known fact. Our brains
already are flooded with the plant's active agents -- chemicals called
cannabinoids that may play key roles in keeping us healthy, happy and free
of pain.

Scientists have known since 1992 that the brain contains compounds that
latch onto the same sites in the brain as the active ingredient in
marijuana. On Monday, scientists funded by the National Institute on Drug
Abuse announced they have discovered how one of these compounds causes a
behavior characteristic of marijuana use, the inhibiting of movement.

Since the discovery of the first identified human cannabinoid -- christened
``anandamide'' from the Sanskrit word meaning ``internal bliss'' -- these
compounds have become one of the looming mysteries of the nervous system
because they touch so many aspects of human life, including how we eat,
fight illness and form memories.

Scientists want to learn how these natural chemicals mimic the effects of
the active ingredient in marijuana known as delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol
(THC).

This week's announcement describes how anandamide counteracts another brain
chemical, dopamine.

Animal studies showed that anandamide and dopamine act in opposite ways to
control movements in an area of the brain called the dorsal striatum,
according to the scientists, who will publish their findings in the April
issue of the journal Nature-Neuroscience. ``Dopamine stimulates movements
by acting in this area, and anandamide normally inhibits this action of
dopamine,'' said lead researcher Dr. Andrea Giuffrida of the University of
California-Irvine.

``Research on drug abuse can lead to possible treatments for seemingly
unrelated diseases,'' said Dr. Alan Leshner, National Institute on Drug
Abuse director. ``Abnormalities in the dopamine system are thought to play
a major role in several neurological and psychiatric disorders, as well as
in drug addiction, so new medications that can counteract these
abnormalities might prove useful in treating more than one disease.''

Developing medication

The THC-like natural compounds may prove useful in the development of
medications for treating diseases that seem to involve dopamine imbalances
in the brain, Giuffrida suggests. Some diseases such as schizophrenia and
Tourette's syndrome may be caused by too much dopamine in certain brain
regions, or perhaps hypersensitivity of brain sites targeted by dopamine.
Medications that mimic anandamide might reduce symptoms by dampening
dopamine overactivity.

While cannabinoids are common in animal nervous systems, marijuana is the
only plant known to contain them. In fact, it has dozens, including THC,
which is far more powerful than the cannabinoids found in humans and other
animals.

Last week's report from the Institute of Medicine notes that cannabinoids
produced by our bodies affect pain, appetite, motor control and memory. The
most recent studies show cannabinoids may regulate the immune system,
enhance reproduction and protect the brain.

Here are some of the most intriguing findings:

In December, two University of Buffalo researchers reported that
cannabinoids help control the exquisite timing of reproduction by slowing
the sperm that approach an egg before it's ready for fertilization.

Cannabinoids have been found to both suppress and enhance the body's
defenses against diseases and tumors, a duality that has researchers puzzled.

While anti-drug messages spotlight the drug's damaging effects on the
brain, research last summer from the National Institute of Mental Health
showed cannabinoids protected brain cells from stroke or trauma damage.

Last year, scientists at the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego showed
that cannabinoids block the formation of memories in animal brain tissue.
This might keep the brain from getting overwhelmed with unimportant memories.

The latest report is no news to the nation's medical establishment. The
National Institutes of Health and the American Medical Association have
been calling for aggressive research into marijuana, citing pioneering work
on cannabinoids.

Perhaps these compounds help in stressful situations, such as helping cope
with pain perception. Or perhaps anandamide disregulaton -- when the body
produces too much or too little of the chemical -- is linked to mood
disorders.

Scientists speculate that pot smokers manipulate a naturally occurring
system when they light up a joint, creating an effect that they might not
otherwise have at that moment.

Chemically, these compounds don't look quite like THC. But they are similar
enough to bind to a THC receptor in the brain, like a key in a lock. This
triggers the release of chemicals, called neurotransmitters, that send
impulses down the body's central nervous system pathways that control motor
skills, memory and other functions.

Until recently, the existence of these receptors was mystifying. Had they
evolved in anticipation of that day when someone would smoke a joint? Or
did they play some normal, natural role?

The discovery of anandamide and other cannabinoids helps solve that mystery.

Researchers also hope that cannabinoids can be used to ease pain,
especially chronic nerve pain that doesn't respond to other painkillers.
Studies show cannabinoids work as well as morphine by short-circuiting pain
signals before they reach the spinal cord or brain, and they are less
addictive than narcotic pain relievers.

Several years away

For that to be realized, researchers will have to develop cannabinoid-based
drugs or inhalers. Those are not expected to be widely available for
several years. In the meantime, the Institute of Medicine recommended that
patients whose pain and nausea do not respond to any other treatment be
given marijuana cigarettes, even though that violates federal law and
carries its own health risks from smoke.

That political battle probably will be waged through more state ballot
initiatives across the country. Meanwhile, researchers are staying far away
from the political fray. Instead, they plan to keep working on what they
call the ``Holy Grail'' of their field: separating marijuana's therapeutic
effects from side effects such as euphoria and disorientation.

Kenneth Hargreaves, a pharmacologist at the University of Texas Health
Science Center in San Antonio, has shown that injecting small
concentrations of cannabinoids directly at a site of injury relieved pain
and swelling without affecting the brain. He hopes to develop a cannabinoid
pill that wouldn't cross the body's blood/brain barrier and cause mental
side effects.

While some advocates of marijuana say its power lies in its complex mix of
chemicals, Hargreaves argues that harnessing cannabinoids and tailoring
them to medical needs is the best approach. ``For a fever, you're going to
take an aspirin,'' he said. ``You're not going to boil willow bark off a
tree.''

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

The Scoop, Medical Marijuana (Mother Jones Wire says never mind what the
drug czar's own study by the Institute of Medicine recommends. Barry
McCaffrey insists that medical marijuana is gonna stay illegal - because it
impairs memory, interferes with motor skills, and impairs memory.)

Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 04:19:59 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: OPED: The Scoop, Medical Marijuana
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: aslinn@indy.net (aslinn)
Pubdate: Tue, 23 Mar 1999
Source: Mother Jones (US)
Contact: mojowire@mothorjones.com
Website: http://mojones.com/
Author: Bob Harris

THE SCOOP, MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Those Who Cannot Remember The Past Are Condemned To... Uh... Something

Never mind what his own study says; Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey insists
that medical marijuana is gonna stay illegal -- because it impairs
memory, interferes with motor skills, and it impairs memory.

As you already know, voters in seven states have approved the use of
marijuana strictly for medical purposes. However, the will of the
people notwithstanding, the federal government still thinks letting a
cancer patient in chemotherapy relieve their pain this way is a crime
worthy of imprisonment.

Gee, thank God somebody's trying get these troublemakers off the
streets.

Let's not confuse medical use of marijuana with recreational toking.
Casual marijuana abuse can cause serious problems for some people. But
that's not the subject here. And it impairs memory.

Here's the thing: an independent report commissioned by McCaffrey's
own Office of National Drug Control Policy has strongly recommended
legalization for medical reasons only.

McCaffrey's own investigators say that

a) marijuana's not particularly addictive b) it's not a gateway to
harder drugs c) medical use wouldn't increase casual abuse d) and for
people in grave condition and real pain, like AIDS patients suffering
from wasting syndrome, the medical benefits far outweigh the risks,
which are less than you get even with many well-known prescription
drugs.

Never mind all that. Never mind the insanity of outlawing a substance
tried by roughly one-quarter of the U.S. population. Never mind the
ongoing, ludicrous failure of drug prohibition. And never mind the
obvious historical example of alcohol prohibition.

The Drug Czar still insists that anyone putting into practice his own
office's findings will still be subject to arrest.

But suppose for a second the study had determined that marijuana was a
major public-health menace. Do you imagine General McCaffrey would
discard it so easily, or would he be waving it proudly as further
rationalization for the militarization of drug enforcement?

Dude, why spend our tax dollars on a study if you're just going to
ignore it if it doesn't find what you want?

I guess because except for cigarettes, alcohol, caffeine, and
prescription narcotics, drugs are destroying America.

And they impair memory.

***

Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1999 09:54:06 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Correction: US: OPED - The Scoop, Medical Marijuana
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Richard Lake, Sr. Editor
Source: The Media Awareness project
Pubdate: Tue, 23 Mar 1999

Dear Readers,

The following story, attributed to Mother Jones and posted at the following
URL (and in DND #342) is not properly identified. The item is from Mother
Jones Wire, a section of their website at http://mojones.com/ for web
publishing breaking news stories. It did not appear in Mother Jones
magazine, and is thus not an appropriate target for Letters to the Editor
(LTE) of the magazine.

Indeed, we can not confirm that the Mother Jones items in their Wire
section are even like AP or UPI wire stories, distributed to other media.

The MAP policy is to redistribute only items actually in print in the
press, or transcripts from radio or TV, and actual wire service items
identified as such.

We are sorry for any inconvenience this improper identification caused our
readers and LTE writers.

Richard Lake
Senior Editor
MAPnews, MAPnews-Digest and DrugNews-Digest

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

Snorting Heroin Becoming More Popular - U.S. Report (Reuters says the
semi-annual "pulse check" released Tuesday by General Barry McCaffrey's
Office of National Drug Control Policy indicates the practice of inhaling
heroin is growing more popular, while the drug is being used increasingly by
women, the affluent and suburbanites. Reuters doesn't say so, but implicitly
the report shows the U.S. war on some drug users continues to correlate with
lower heroin prices and increased availability and increasing deaths. The use
of methamphetamine on the West Coast and "club drugs" generally is also
increasing.)

Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1999 18:00:06 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: Wire: Snorting Heroin Becoming More Popular -US Report
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Jim Galasyn
Pubdate: Tue, 23 Mar 1999
Source: Reuters
Copyright: 1999 Reuters Limited.
Author: Ellen Wulfhorst

SNORTING HEROIN BECOMING MORE POPULAR -U.S. REPORT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The practice of inhaling heroin is growing more
popular, and the drug is finding more users among women, the affluent
and suburbanites, said a new report released Tuesday by the Office of
National Drug Control Policy.

Also growing in use are ``club drugs,'' the hallucinogens and
sedatives popular at nightclubs and rave dances, said the report
released by White House anti-drug chief Barry McCaffrey at a news
conference at Roosevelt Hospital in New York.

The report, a semi-annual document known as a pulse check, is based on
information from treatment centers, law enforcement agencies,
epidemiologists and ethnographers across the country.

Their findings are used to spot trends in drug use before more
long-term studies are conducted, McCaffrey said.

The practice of snorting heroin is spreading, particularly among
younger people, he said.

``It may be a young person who believes that by not injecting it but
by ingesting it ... that they're safer or that it's non-addictive,''
he said. ``Nothing could be farther from the truth. It can kill you.''

Heroin use appears to be growing among females, in suburban areas,
among whites and in higher socioeconomic groups, the report said.

The ``club drugs'' also are popular among young, white affluent users,
it said.

``They may not be sure what it is,'' McCaffrey said. ``It's a new
experience they're willing to take.''

Some of the drugs ``are incredibly lethal, potentially,'' he
added.

``Club drugs'' include MDMA, a hallucinogen known as Ecstasy;
ketamine, a veterinary anaesthetic known as Special K; GHB, a sedative
called Georgia Home Boy or Liquid X; and Rohypnol tablets known as
Roofies.

Marijuana use also is widespread, and more potent versions are
available due to sophisticated indoor and hydroponic growing methods,
the report said.

Still other findings show that crack and casual cocaine use is
dropping, while the use of methamphetamine is growing on the West Coast.

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

High Court Rejects Proposal to Expand School Drug Tests (The Washington Times
version)

Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1999 03:52:32 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: High Court Rejects Proposal
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: Tue, 23 Mar 1999
Source: Washington Times (DC)
Copyright: 1999 News World Communications, Inc.
Contact: letter@twtmail.com
Website: http://www.washtimes.com/

HIGH COURT REJECTS PROPOSAL TO EXPAND SCHOOL DRUG TESTS

The Supreme Court yesterday refused to consider expanding public high
schools' authority to test for illegal drug use.

The justices, who have allowed testing of students for voluntary
extracurricular activities, refused to permit an Indiana district to
require urine tests for students returning to class after suspensions
of three days or more.

In another case, the court ruled 8-1 that college professors do not
have a constitutional right to negotiate rules on how to apportion
their working time between teaching and research.

The unsigned opinion, with Justice John Paul Stevens dissenting,
upheld as "entirely rational" an Ohio law to ensure that professors
spend more time in the classroom.

In setting up their agenda for the term that begins in October,
justices agreed to decide whether states may exclude voters by race
from a special election.

The Hawaii case tests the constitutionality of restricting voting on a
program benefiting those of Hawaiian blood solely to those descended
from islanders living in Hawaii before 1778, when Capt. James Cook
arrived with the first Europeans.

Another case accepted for the last term of the year will test a
prosecutor's right to tell the jury that the defendant had an edge
because he testified after hearing what everyone else said.

Ray Agard of New York appealed his conviction and 10- to 20-year
sentence for sodomy and weapons possession on the grounds that a
prosecutor said, "You get to sit here and think, `What am I going to
say? . . . How am I going to fit it into the evidence?' "

Without comment or explanation, the justices also:

* Refused to hear the Cult Awareness Network's appeal from a 1995
federal court order in Seattle to pay $1,875,000 to Jason Scott, who
claimed his civil rights were violated during a five-day kidnapping to
"deprogram" him of United Pentecostal beliefs.

* Left standing Rita Gluzman's life sentence for her husband's 1996
murder. She argued the sentence was unconstitutional because the
federal Violence Against Women Act intrudes on states' rights.
Gluzman, who lived in New Jersey was convicted of murdering her
husband, biologist Yakov Gluzman, in Pearl River, N.Y. She was the
first woman convicted under the 1994 law making it a crime to cross
state lines to injure, harass or intimidate a spouse or intimate partner.

The issue seems headed back to the justices, however, because the 4th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond ruled this month that the
provision giving rape and domestic violence victims the right to sue
in federal court is unconstitutional.

* Freed Motorola Inc. from having to defend against a class-action
lawsuit charging the second-largest U.S. maker of cellular phones
deceived customers about radiation exposure. The court's rejection of
an appeal by cell phone user Frank J. Schiffner of Illinois left
standing a decision that shelters wireless phone companies from
traditional state law claims.

By refusing to review the drug-testing case brought by James R. Willis
II from Anderson, Ind., the court set no national precedent but left
in force a decision by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that
student privacy rights preclude intrusive testing.

That ruling is binding only in Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin, the
states of the 7th Circuit.

School lawyers called the tests vital to "deterring drug and alcohol
use among students." Mr. Willis was a freshman at Highland High School
when he was suspended five days in December 1997 for fighting.

In the 1995 Vernonia, Ore., case, justices ruled 6-3 that random drug
tests for student athletes do not violate Fourth Amendment protection
against unreasonable searches.

In October, the high court let schools in Rush County, Ind., continue
conducting random drug testing for students participating in
extracurricular activities.

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

Supreme Court Actions Affect Teens (The Associated Press version in the
Orange County Register notes the justices also left intact a curfew for
children under 17 imposed by Charlottesville, Virginia.)

Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 20:49:10 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: Supreme Court Actions Affect Teens
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: John W. Black
Pubdate: Tue, 23 March 1999
Source: Orange County Register (CA)
Copyright: 1999 The Orange County Register
Contact: letters@link.freedom.com
Website: http://www.ocregister.com/
Section: News page 5
Author: Richard Carelli, The Associated Press

SUPREME COURT ACTIONS AFFECT TEENS

High Court: Curfew For Children Is Let Stand And Schools' Drug-Testing
Policy Is Denied..

Washington-Handling two disputes over the rights of teen-agers and parents,
the Supreme Court on Monday allowed a city to continue imposing a nighttime
curfew but barred two high schools from requiring drug tests for all
students suspended for disciplinary reasons.

The justices left intact a Charlottesville, Va., curfew for children under
17 and rejected Indiana school officials' effort to have their drug-testing
policy reinstated.

The two actions were not decisions, set no precedents and did not preclude
the possibility that the justices someday may choose to study each issue
more closely.

A nighttime curfew for minors, now employed by many communities, has never
been fully reviewed by the nation's highest court. Monday's action may
encourage other communities to consider adopting similar ordinances.

The court's denial of review in the Indiana case, meanwhile, is likely only
to confuse the already murky legal status of student drug-testing.

Lawyers for the Anderson Community School Corp. had sought to revive at two
Anderson high schools a drug-testing policy they called vital to "deterring
drug and alcohol use among students."

A federal appeals court struck down the 1997 policy, ruling that suspended
students cannot be required to take a urine test before being reinstated
unless they are individually suspected of using drugs or alcohol.

Test results had been disclosed only to parents and a designated school
official, and had not been used for additional punishment.

James R. Willis II was a freshman at Highland High School when he was
suspended for five days in December 1997 for fighting. The school official
to whom Willis was taken right after his fight later testified that there
was no indication he had been using drugs or alcohol.

Willis refused to take the required drug test for readmission, and, with his
father, sued the school district. Monday's action sealed their legal victory.

The Supreme Court in 1995 ruled in an Oregon case that random drug tests for
student athletes do not violate the Constitution's Fourth Amendment
protection against unreasonable searches. That ruling emphasized the "role
model" effect of student athletes' drug use but also noted the importance of
"deterring drug use by our nation's schoolchildren."

Last October, the justices rejected a challenge to a policy used by another
Indiana school district, in rural Rush County, that requires random drug
testing for all students who participate in extracurricular activities.

But no court has ever condoned the random testing of all public school students.

In striking down the drug-testing policy in Anderson, a three-judge panel of
the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals drew a distinction between it and
those involved in the Oregon and Rush County cases.

Also Monday, the Supreme Court:

Rejected a challenge to the federal Violence Against Women Act filed by the
first woman convicted under the law. Rita Gluzman of New Jersey was
sentenced to life in prison for her husband's murder in 1996. She argued
that Congress exceeded its power to control interstate commerce by making it
a crime to cross state lines to harm a spouse or intimate partner.

Agreed to decide whether prosecutors violate defendants' rights by implying
that their presence at trial lets them hear other witnesses and tailor their
own testimony to fit the evidence. Prosecutors in a New York case say such
comments to a jury do not burden defendants' constitutional right to be
present at trial and confront the witnesses against them.

Agreed to decide whether Hawaii may limit by race the voters who elect a
nine-member board that oversees a program benefiting only residents who are
ethnic Hawaiians. A white resident of Hawaii says the state law
discriminates against him.

Ruled in an Ohio case that states do not violate the Constitution when they
cancel the right of public university professors to negotiate workload rules
as part of their union contracts.

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

Court Limits Drug Tests (A different Associated Press version)

Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1999 18:10:25 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: Wire: Court Limits Drug Tests
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: Tue, 23 Mar 1999
Source: Associated Press
Copyright: 1999 Associated Press

COURT LIMITS DRUG TESTS

Not All Students Who Break Rules Can Be Screened

WASHINGTON The Supreme Court refused Monday to allow a school district
to test for drugs all those who violate its disciplinary rules.

While individuals who appear to be under the influence of drugs can be
tested at school, officials may not routinely test groups of students,
said an appeals court ruling that the Supreme Court let stand.

The Constitution's Fourth Amendment protects students, as well as
adults, from unreasonable searches by public officials, the ruling
stressed.

"This decision says that just because you are a student, you don't
lose all your rights to privacy," said Kenneth J. Falk, a lawyer for
the Indiana Civil Liberties Union. Falk represented a freshman student
who challenged the school drug-testing policy in Anderson, Ind.

Four years ago, the court opened the door to routine testing at
schools when it upheld a program for school athletes in Vernonia, Ore.

Because students playing sports while under the influence of drugs
could be injured, it is reasonable to force them to undergo regular
urine testing, the Supreme Court concluded.

A year later, a school district in Rushville, Ind., went one step
further and adopted regular testing for all students in
extracurricular activities.

The school board in Anderson, Ind., north of Indianapolis, adopted a
policy requiring students who were caught fighting or had otherwise
violated significant school rules to submit to a test for drugs and
alcohol.

But freshman James R. Willis, who had been in a fight, refused to take
the test and was suspended for it.

When his challenge came before the U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago,
the judges struck down the school policy as a type of unreasonable
search prohibited by the Fourth Amendment. The judges stressed,
however, that a school official who had a specific reason to believe
a student was under the influence of drugs could order him or her to
be tested.

In January, the school district appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing
that "its responsibilities as guardian and tutor of children entrusted
to its care outweigh Willis' expectation of privacy." On Monday, the
justices turned down the appeal.

Also Monday, the Supreme Court:

Let stand a Charlottesville, Va., curfew for teenagers. A group of
teenagers and their parents sued, contending the curfew - midnight
weekdays and 1 a.m. weekends - "deprives parents of their historically
fundamental right to direct the rearing of their children" and
unjustifiably "discriminates against minors in matters of fundamental
freedoms." A federal appeals court ruled that the city "was
constitutionally justified in believing that its curfew would
materially assist its first stated interest - that of reducing
juvenile violence and crime." The Supreme Court left that ruling intact.

Chicago has a curfew for children under 17: 10:30 weeknights and
11:30 weekend nights.

Agreed to decide whether Hawaii can bar white people from voting to
elect the trustees who oversee a fund for the benefit of native
Hawaiians. The lower courts have upheld the restriction, but the court
will hear the appeal of Harold Rice, a rancher who says the rule is an
example of unconstitutional race discrimination.

Ruled in an Ohio case that states do not violate the Constitution when
they cancel the right of public university professors to negotiate
workload rules as part of their union contracts.

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

High Court Limits Drug Testing Of Students (The San Jose Mercury News
version)

Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 10:31:51 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: High Court Limits Drug Testing Of Students
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Marcus/Mermelstein Family (mmfamily@ix.netcom.com)
Pubdate: Tue, 23 Mar 1999
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 1999 Mercury Center
Contact: letters@sjmercury.com
Website: http://www.sjmercury.com/
Author: David G. Savage

HIGH COURT LIMITS DRUG TESTING OF STUDENTS

Fourth Amendment Applies To Children As Well As Adults

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court, limiting the drug testing of
students, refused Monday to allow a school district to test all those
who violate its disciplinary rules.

While individuals who appear to be under the influence of drugs can be
tested at school, officials may not routinely test groups of students,
under the ruling that the high court let stand.

The Constitution's Fourth Amendment protects students, as well as
adults, from unreasonable searches by public officials, the ruling
said.

``This decision says that just because you are a student, you don't
lose all your rights to privacy,'' said Kenneth Falk, a lawyer for the
Indiana Civil Liberties Union. Falk represented a freshman who
successfully challenged the school drug-testing policy in Anderson,
Ind.

Mandatory testing fading

Mandatory drug testing in schools, once considered a likely next step
in the war on drugs, now appears to be fading as an option, experts
say, a victim of privacy concerns, high costs and adverse court rulings.

Most large urban school districts have not adopted widespread or
routine drug testing. And mandatory drug testing in schools has not
been a heated issue in San Jose.

Instead, the lead cases in school drug testing have come from small
towns in Oregon, Indiana and Colorado.

``They have the feeling they don't want to become like New York,
Chicago or Los Angeles. In these (small town) communities, there is
minimal opposition'' to mandatory drug testing, Falk said.

Four years ago, the Supreme Court opened the door to routine testing
at schools when it upheld a urine-testing program for school athletes
in rural Vernonia, Ore. Because students playing sports while under
the influence of drugs could be injured, it is reasonable to force
them to undergo regular urine testing, the high court concluded.

One step further

A year later, a school district in Rushville, Ind., went one step
further and adopted regular testing for all students who participated
in extracurricular activities.

Since then, however, the trend toward more testing has been halted. No
court has condoned the testing of all students, and several courts
have struck down policies that target for testing students who have
violated certain disciplinary rules. In Colorado, the state Supreme
Court recently struck down a drug-testing policy that included members
of the marching band.

The school board in Anderson, north of Indianapolis, adopted a policy
requiring students who were caught fighting or had otherwise violated
significant school rules to submit to a test for drugs and alcohol.

``We figured those are the kids likely to abuse drugs and alcohol,''
said Robert Baker, an attorney for the school district. In one of the
town's high schools, drug testing of students after they had been
fighting showed evidence of an illegal substance in 46 percent of them.

But freshman James Willis, who had been involved in a fight, refused
to take the test and was suspended for it.

When his challenge came before the U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago,
the judges struck down the school policy as a type of unreasonable
search prohibited by the Fourth Amendment. The judges stressed,
however, that a school official who had a specific reason to believe a
student was under the influence of drugs could order a drug test.

District appealed

In January, the school district appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing
that ``its responsibilities as guardian and tutor of children
entrusted to its care outweigh Willis' expectation of privacy.'' But
Monday, the justices without comment turned down the appeal in
Anderson Community Schools vs. Willis.

``This means we need to go back to the basics and test only when we
have a reasonable suspicion'' that an individual is impaired, Baker
said.

In another case involving the rights of teenagers, the justices Monday
left intact a Charlottesville, Va., curfew for children under 17. In
San Jose, the city's curfew requires children under 16 to be off city
streets by 10 p.m. Older youths, up to 18, have until 11:30 p.m. The
San Jose law has no criminal sanctions; violators are given counseling
and taken home.

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

When Can Police Seize Private Property? (The Christian Science Monitor says
the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments today in a case involving
police who used Florida's forfeiture law first to seize and then to justify a
warrantless search of a car belonging to Tyvessel White, who was subsequently
convicted of possessing two pieces of crack cocaine. The Florida case marks
the first time the high court will consider whether a warrant is needed in
forfeiture cases.)

Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 05:47:38 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: When Can Police Seize Private Property?
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: 23 Mar 1999
Source: Christian Science Monitor (US)
Copyright: 1999 The Christian Science Publishing Society.
Contact: oped@csps.com
Website: http://www.csmonitor.com/
Forum: http://www.csmonitor.com/atcsmonitor/vox/p-vox.html

WHEN CAN POLICE SEIZE PRIVATE PROPERTY?

Supreme Court hears case today that tests limits of a powerful
crime-fighting tool.

It's one of the most contentious areas of American law in the 1990s:
allowing police to seize personal property - often in advance of a finding
of guilt - if they believe it is linked to criminal activity.

Opponents say such police tactics raise basic questions of fairness,
privacy, and due process.

Laws allowing such confiscation of private property exist at the federal
level and in most states - and courts across the US have upheld the basic
concept of forfeiture. But judges are split over exactly how those laws
should be enforced so they comply with the Constitution's protections
against unreasonable searches and seizures.

For instance, it remains unclear whether law-enforcement officials need a
search warrant before they make a seizure, or whether such forfeiture
decisions are up to the exclusive discretion of the police.

Today, the US Supreme Court takes up the case of a Florida man whose car
was seized by police because they suspected he had used it to deal drugs
two months earlier.

The police did not obtain a court-authorized warrant approving the seizure.
Instead they acted under the authority of Florida's forfeiture law, which
they say permits the police to carry out warrantless confiscation of any
vehicle, money, or other property that they have probable cause to believe
has been used in a crime.

After seizing the car, police found two pieces of crack cocaine in the
ashtray. The owner of the car, Tyvessel White, was charged and eventually
convicted of narcotics possession.

When a warrant is needed

Mr. White challenged the legality of the car's search, claiming that police
never obtained a warrant as is required under the Fourth Amendment. The
police countered that when acting under the forfeiture law they needed no
warrant.

The Florida Supreme Court overturned White's conviction, ruling that,
regardless of the state's forfeiture law, law enforcement-officials should
have first obtained a warrant from a judge prior to seizing the car.

The case arises at a time when police agencies are increasingly turning to
civil forfeiture, not only as a crime-fighting tool but as an important
source of revenue.

Law-enforcement agencies across the nation have long relied on captured
booty and other property of suspected drug dealers, smugglers, money
launderers, and other criminals to pay for a large portion of the war on
drugs and other anticrime efforts. In 1996, the Drug Enforcement
Administration alone seized nearly a half billion dollars' worth of
currency, real estate, vehicles, vessels, and aircraft. More than $275
million of it came in the form of cash.

The same methods are expanding into other areas of law enforcement. Last
month, New York City announced that drunk-driving suspects pulled over in
traffic stops would face immediate forfeiture of their cars.

The Florida case marks the first time the high court will consider whether
a warrant is needed in forfeiture cases. Federal appeals courts and state
court judges are divided on the issue.

Part of the debate revolves around whether forfeiture - carried out under
civil law - is actually a disguised form of punishment for criminals.

"Forfeiture is punishment," says Steven Kessler, a New York City lawyer who
specializes in forfeiture. "If you are going to punish someone, you have to
comply with constitutional protections."

Those protections include the requirement that police obtain a warrant
before seizing private property.

Private property in public

Proponents of strong forfeitures laws counter that criminal proceeds and
assets, such as cars used to facilitate a crime, are no longer private
property. When they become involved in illegal enterprise, the law views
them as contraband. Officers who find what they suspect to be contraband in
someone's possession in a public location are empowered to seize it.
White's car was in a business parking lot.

In addition to Florida, 27 states and the US Justice Department are urging
the justices to overturn the Florida Supreme Court decision. They argue
that forfeiture is an important crime-fighting tool that will be
significantly watered down if agents and police officers are forced to win
judicial approval prior to seizing criminal proceeds and property.

Law-enforcement officials add that judicial review of prospective seizures
is unnecessary because owners of the seized property have an opportunity to
contest the action later in court.

Dangerous incentive

Many defense lawyers say the revenue-raising aspect of forfeitures creates
a dangerous incentive for police to confiscate as much as possible. Judges,
who do not stand to benefit from the forfeitures, are in a better position
than a police officer to determine when a seizure of property might be
unreasonable under the Constitution, they say.

"If you allow the police to make the probable cause determination in a case
where they stand to directly gain from it, it doesn't pass the smell test,"
says Richard Troberman, a Seattle lawyer who filed a friend-of-the-court
brief in the case on behalf of the National Association of Criminal Defense
Lawyers.

"The problem is, what about the case where the police seize a car because
an informant tells the police something that turns out to be totally
wrong," Mr. Troberman says, "and the innocent owner loses the use of the
car for weeks, or months, or years without any opportunity to go before a
judge to contest it."

In its brief in the case, the US Justice Department says that under the law
police have the exclusive power to seize property without any prior
judicial oversight. But the brief says the department's current policy is
nonetheless to obtain a warrant from a judge whenever it is possible prior
to a seizure.

Troberman says there is no down side for law enforcement in obtaining a
warrant when police face no time constraints.

In some cases, assets or evidence must be seized immediately to prevent it
from being destroyed or hidden. But in many other cases, there are no
exigent circumstances, and obtaining a warrant would in no way hinder the
ability of police to make such forfeitures, Troberman says.

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

Anti-Money Laundering Rules Dropped (The Associated Press says U.S. banking
regulators, responding to a public outcry over privacy concerns, on Tuesday
scrapped the "Know Your Customer" anti-money laundering rules that would have
tracked the transaction patterns of bank customers. The rules were put out
for public comment in December by four federal banking agencies. Since then,
the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. alone has received about 225,000 e-mail
messages and letters, nearly all opposing the rules.)

Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 20:45:09 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: Wire: Anti-Money Laundering Rules Dropped
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: 23 Mar 1999
Source: Associated Press
Copyright: 1999 Associated Press
Author: Marcy Gordon

ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING RULES DROPPED

WASHINGTON (AP) Banking regulators, responding to a public outcry over
privacy concerns, scrapped proposed anti-money laundering rules Tuesday
that would have tracked the transaction patterns of bank customers.

The "Know Your Customer" rules were put out for public comment in December
by four federal banking agencies. Since then, the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corp. alone has received some 225,000 e-mail messages and letters, nearly
all opposing the rules.

Privacy advocates, conservative groups, ordinary people and the nation's
bankers have complained that the rules would turn every bank teller into a
spy for Big Brother. They maintained the rules were unconstitutional and
would violate prohibitions against unreasonable search and seizure.

Early this month, the Senate joined the deluge of criticism, voting 88-0 to
express support for a measure directing the regulators to drop the proposals.

In a statement issued Tuesday after agency officials voted at open
meetings, the four agencies said they had received "an unprecedented
number" of comments protesting the proposal on privacy grounds.

The regulations would have required banks to verify their customers'
identities, know where their money comes from and determine their normal
pattern of transactions. The current requirements for banks to report any
"suspicious" transactions to law enforcement authorities would have been
expanded.

Lawmakers and bankers reacted swiftly and positively to the regulators'
action. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Phil Gramm, R-Texas, for example,
said he was "glad to know that there are regulators who will listen to real
people and walk away from a bad idea."

Donald Ogilvie, executive vice president of the American Bankers
Association, said the rules would have put banks "in the untenable position
of invading their customers' privacy and potentially could have eroded
public confidence in the banking industry."

The regulators' decision to withdraw the proposal "does not diminish in any
manner our long-standing support" for other federal laws designed to fight
money laundering, the agencies' statement said.

The statement was issued by the FDIC, the Federal Reserve Board, the Office
of Thrift Supervision and the office of the Comptroller of the Currency,
which oversees nationally chartered banks.

Money launderers should not be encouraged because the "Know Your Customer"
rules are being scrapped, a senior Treasury Department official said. The
official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the department is still
engaged in "vigorous enforcement" of existing rules prohibiting money
laundering.

The proposed rules were designed to combat money laundering techniques used
by drug traffickers and other criminals to hide illegal profits. Money
laundering, which is a major concern of law enforcement officials, reached
an estimated $30 billion in this country last year.

Laundering includes the use of wire transfers and bank drafts as well as
"smurfing," the practice of breaking down transactions into smaller amounts
that do not have to be reported under the Bank Secrecy Act.

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

The Prison Boom (Washington Post columnist Geneva Overholser says the
combination of strong opinions and little expertise among lawmakers has given
us a huge and continuing boom in prison building, but little else in the way
of sound public policy to deal with the problems filling the cells. Perhaps
the 15-minute spotlight supposedly being focused now on the prison-industrial
complex will nudge us toward the better path that social science research is
bringing to light.)

Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 09:32:39 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: OPED: The Prison Boom
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Richard Lake (rlake@mapinc.org)
Pubdate: Tue, 23 Mar 1999
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 1999 The Washington Post Company
Section: OPED, Page A17
Address: 1150 15th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20071
Feedback: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Author: Geneva Overholser

THE PRISON BOOM

Interesting how not only people have their 15 minutes of fame. Issues
do, too. A powerful beam of concentrated light has fallen, suddenly,
on the astonishing share of our population we've been putting behind
bars.

In the past dozen years, the number of Americans in jails and prisons
has doubled, says a Justice Department survey released this month. At
the end of 1985, there were 744,208 people locked up; by mid-1998, 1.8
million.

The prison boom -- and the degree to which it is fed by drug-related
arrests -- had been generating headlines even before the study. Take a
Feb. 28 New York Times story: "War on Crack Retreats, Still Taking
Prisoners." It began: "Every 20 seconds, someone in America is
arrested for a drug violation. Every week, on average, a new jail or
prison is built to lock up more people in the world's largest penal
system."

A March 7 New York Times Week in Review analysis, "Less Crime, More
Criminals," noted that "the ranks of prisoners grow enough each year
to fill Yankee Stadium and then some." Last year the Atlantic Monthly,
in "The Prison Industrial Complex," looked at the number of jobs for
depressed regions and "windfalls for profiteers" brought by the boom.

But surely the story that showed most dramatically how far we've come
with this addiction to imprisonment was a Feb. 22 Washington Post
piece, "Voting Rights for Felons Win Support; 13 percent of Black Men
Ineligible With Ban." The story described proposals in various states
to allow felons, and in some cases current prisoners, to vote.
Hand-wringing is one thing; when worry over the huge numbers of
nonvoters in and out of prison spurs legislation, you know something
big has happened.

And something big has. The U.S. rate of imprisonment, once comparable
to that of other democracies, is now six to 10 times higher than those
of countries of the European Union, according to Council of Europe
figures.

It's hard now even to remember back to the '60s, when America's prison
population was shrinking. Leaders of both parties then talked of
emptying the nation's jails of all but the most dangerous criminals
and moving to more humane alternatives. Instead we now have mandatory
minimum sentences, "three-strikes" laws and other anti-crime measures,
increasing both the number of people sent to prison out of all those
arrested and the length of time served.

These measures set us so resolutely on our new path that now, well
after crime rates began their descent, imprisonment rates continue to
soar. And the boom eats greater and greater shares of federal, state
and local budgets. In 1994 the California Department of Correction
budget rose higher than that for the University of California.

More and more research is showing that this spending for prisons at
the expense of other government responsibilities is seriously
misguided. Words once voiced only by such liberals as Jesse Jackson
are now being presented simply as sound policy: It's more efficient to
spend on programs that may prevent crime -- afternoon activities for
unsupervised youth, family therapy for troubled kids, support for
"at-risk" young mothers -- than on imprisoning people. Some of the
best of this work has come out of Rand, the very think tank that made
longer prison terms popular, as the National Journal noted in a fine
piece last summer called "All Locked Up."

That piece ends with a powerful sentiment from former Democratic
representative Dan Rostenkowski, who learned a lot about what his
votes had produced -- once he himself had been locked up on corruption
charges. He was amazed, he said, by the great number of sentences of
15 or 20 years for minor drug offenses. "The waste of these lives is a
loss to the entire community. That's not a problem many people spend
much time thinking about. . . . Certainly, I didn't give these issues
a lot of thought when I was a member of the civilian
population."

Rostenkowski added that he felt guilty over having voted for these
"misguided" policies. "I was swept along by the rhetoric about getting
tough on crime. Frankly, I lacked both expertise and perspective on
these issues. So I deferred to my colleagues who had stronger opinions
but little more expertise."

That combination of strong opinions and little expertise has given us
a huge and continuing boom in prison building, but little else in the
way of sound public policy to deal with the problems filling the
cells. Perhaps this 15-minute spotlight will nudge us toward the
better path that social science research is bringing to light.

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10-Year-Olds Being Offered Drugs (The Belfast Telegraph says a recent survey
by the Health Promotion Agency found that almost a quarter of 10 to
16-year-olds in Northern Ireland had been offered "drugs." Of those who had
been offered drugs, more than half had experimented with them at least once
and a third had continued using drugs.)

Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1999 08:35:09 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: UK: 10-Year-Olds Being Offered Drugs
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: 23 March 1999
Source: Belfast Telegraph (UK)
Copyright: 1999 Belfast Telegraph Newspapers Ltd.
Contact: editor@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
Website: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/

10-YEAR-OLDS BEING OFFERED DRUGS

SCHOOLCHILDREN as young as 10-years-old are being offered drugs in Northern
Ireland.

A recent survey by the Health Promotion Agency found that almost a quarter
of 10 to 16-year-olds have been offered drugs.

The survey of more than 6,500 young people, also showed that of those who
had been offered drugs, more than half had experimented with them at least
once and a third had continued using drugs.

Another study of more than 1,200 16 to 17-year-olds in 1997 (Almost Adult
by Jean Craig) found over 40% had used drugs and that two thirds of those
who have ever tried drugs were current drugs users.

Robb Phipps, alcohol and drugs programme manager for the Health Promotion
Agency, said: "There is a need to provide young people with credible and
accurate information about the dangers of drugs.

"Children as young as 10 are wanting information because they have heard
about drugs and want to know what they look like."The most popular drug
among young people in the province is cannabis but solvents, which are
easily accessible, are still an issue.

As they grow older they will come across amphetamines, magic mushrooms and
ecstacy.

Even deadly heroin is used by some young people, although it is not thought
to be a major drug of choice here.

"For the 14 to 17-year-olds we try to give them straight forward and
balanced information rather than a patronising 'don't take drugs' message,"
Robb said.

"We have to treat kids as young people with views and opinions who will
listen to what we say and reflect on it.

"There are some young people who have a greater chance of becoming problem
drug users so we want the 'protective factors' to be enhanced.

"The whole drugs campaign is a partnership between us, who are trying to
reduce the demand, and those who are trying to reduce the availability.

"From the work that we do young people do seem to be getting the message
and appear to be more knowledgeable."Frank McGoldrick, from FT
International, talks to young people about drugs in schools and colleges
across the province.

He said: "We tell the truth about drugs - the good and the bad.

"We tell them that drugs are illegal for a reason and it is not because
people do not want them to have fun, it is because they are dangerous.

"The use of drugs is increasing among young people.

"We recently spoke to a group of P7 pupils and I started to speak to them
about solvents but they then said 'Never mind solvents, tell us about blow.'"

The Department of Education issued guidance to schools on drugs misuse in
June 1996.

This included the recommendation that a member of staff was given overall
responsibility for drugs issues within the school.

The National Drugs Helpline can be contacted free and in confidence on 0800
776600.

The Health Promotion Agency has also produced an advice booklet for parents
entitled 'Drugs and Solvents'.

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German Health Minister Supports Medical Marihuana (A list subscriber
translates excerpts from Stuttgarter Zeitung about Christa Nickels, the
German health minister, speaking in Bonn yesterday on "Marihuana as
Medicine." Nickels said it was sensible to use marihuana and hashish for
therapeutic purposes, noting they are "more cost effective than synthetic
substitutes.")

Date: Sat, 27 Mar 1999 11:22:07 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Germany: German Health Minister Supports Medical Marihuana
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: See Below
Source: Survey of German Language Press
Pubdate: Tue, 23 Mar 1999
Courtesy: Harald Lerch (HaL@main-rheiner.de)
Translator: Pat Dolan (pdolan@intergate.bc.ca)

News In Brief

GERMAN HEALTH MINISTER SUPPORTS MEDICAL MARIHUANA

The 'Stuttgarter Zeitung' (http://www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de) was one of a
number of German, Austrian and Swiss papers which carried reports of
Germany's health minister speaking in Bonn last Monday, (March 22, 1999) on
the subject of 'Marihuana as Medicine'.

BONN Germany's drug czar, Christa Nickels (Greens), considers it sensible
to use Cannabis products such as marihuana and hashish for therapeutic
purposes in medicine.

Speaking exclusively of marihuana as a natural herb, she said it had shown
itself to be "a potentially successful therapy in the treatment of AIDS, MS
and cancer sufferers" and is "more cost effective than synthetic
substitutes".

"Marihuana as a freely accessible drug is a different question," she said.

A professional association of doctors also announced the call for "Cannabis
as medicine," and protested the denial of marihuana prescription rights to
doctors.

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