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

The NORML Foundation Weekly Press Release (Bill to restore student loans to
minor drug offenders introduced in Congress; Nevada legislature mulls bill to
decriminalize marijuana possession; Marijuana-like drug to receive patent for
use treating multiple sclerosis; IOM findings strengthen administrative
challenge to repeal marijuana's prohibited status)

From: NORMLFNDTN@aol.com
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 17:34:07 EST
Subject: NORML WPR 3/25/99 (II)

The NORML Foundation Weekly Press Release

1001 Connecticut Ave., NW
Ste. 710
Washington, DC 20036
202-483-8751 (p)
202-483-0057 (f)
www.norml.org
foundation@norml.org

March 25, 1999

***

Bill To Restore Student Loans To Minor Drug Offenders Introduced In
Congress

March 25, 1999, Washington, D.C.: Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.)
recently introduced legislation to restore student loan eligibility for
marijuana offenders. House Bill 1053 seeks to repeal provisions adopted
by Congress in the Higher Education Act of 1998 that deny financial
assistance to any college student convicted of a drug offense, including
the simple possession of marijuana.

NORML Executive Director R. Keith Stroup, Esq. praised Frank's bill
and criticized Congress' mandatory ban on student aid to marijuana
offenders. "While no one wants to encourage drug use, neither should we
take away an individual's opportunity to obtain an education for such a
minor offense," he said. "Congress' denial of student aid to minor drug
offenders is a needlessly harsh penalty that will force many low-income
students to drop out of college. It is further inappropriate because no
other criminal offense disqualifies college students from receiving
student loans."

The U.S. Department of Education opposes the provisions denying
student aid to drug offenders, and notes that judges already have the
power to strip eligibility to student aid if they feel that an individual
case warrants such action.

Representative Frank said it was "unreasonable" for Congress to
"impose an excessively rigid prohibition on an individual's ability to
receive federal aid," particularly in cases "where individuals are
convicted of minor drug offenses and are trying to get their lives back
together through education."

For more information, please contact either Keith Stroup of NORML @
(202) 483-5500 or Adam Smith of the Drug Reform Coordination Network @
(202) 293-8340. Interested parties may fax their Congressman a letter
supporting H.R. 1053 from NORML's website at: http://www.norml.org.

***

Nevada Legislature Mulls Bill To Decriminalize Marijuana Possession

March 23, 1999, Carson City, NV: Assemblywoman Christina
Giunchigliani (D-Clark) introduced legislation last week to make minor
marijuana possession a misdemeanor offense punishable by no more than a
$100 fine. State law currently defines marijuana possession as a
category E felony punishable by up to four years in jail.

NORML Executive Director R. Keith Stroup, Esq. endorsed
Giunchigliani's proposal. "Marijuana smokers, like their nonsmoking
peers, work hard, raise families, pay taxes, and contribute to their
communities. They are not part of the crime problem and should not face
arrest and jail," he said. "This legislation is long overdue in Nevada."

Nevada is one of the only states that maintains felony criminal
penalties for simple marijuana possession, he said.

Assembly Bill 577 awaits action by the Judiciary Committee. The
committee must vote on the bill before April 9, 1999.

In ten states, simple possession of marijuana is a noncriminal
offense. Last year, voters in Oregon rejected 2 to 1 a legislative
measure to recriminalize marijuana possession.

For more information, please contact either Keith Stroup or Paul
Armentano of NORML @ (202) 483-5500. To download a copy of this
legislation, please visit: http://www.leg.state.nv.us/70th/bills/
AB/AB577.html. To read about additional state marijuana reform
legislation, please visit the NORML website at:
http://www.norml.org/laws/stateleg1999.html.

***

Marijuana-Like Drug To Receive Patent For Use Treating Multiple Sclerosis

March 23, 1999, Iselin, N.J.: A synthetic drug derived from
marijuana received a "Notice of Allowance" from the U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office covering its use in the treatment of multiple sclerosis.
The patent defines new therapeutic applications for the use of
Dexanabinol, a synthetic drug patterned after marijuana cannabinoids, and
other synthetic analogs of marijuana.

The announcement comes less than one week after an Institute of
Medicine report determined that cannabinoids, active compounds in
marijuana, likely play a role in relieving muscle spasms associated with
MS.

"We are very pleased with the granting of this patent," said Haim
Aviv, chairman and CEO of Pharmos Corporation, which licenses
Dexanabinol. "Our expectations of Dexanabinol having multiple
neurological applications are confirmed by, among other factors, its
amelioration of the severity of multiple sclerosis in animals."

Compounds in marijuana, particularly cannabidiol (CBD), have
historically demonstrated value as potential therapeutic agents for
treating patients suffering from multiple sclerosis. Recently, England's
House of Lords Science and Technology Committee said they were
"convince[d] ... that cannabis ... ha[s] genuine medical applications ...
in treating the painful muscle spasms and other symptoms of MS," and
recommended legalizing medical use of the drug.

Previous Phase II human trials on Dexanabinol demonstrated that the
drug reduced mortality and eased intracranial pressure in patients
suffering from severe head injuries. A press release issued by Pharmos
said that the worldwide market for Dexanabinol in the treatment of head
trauma could reach "$1 billion annually, and is significantly larger if
other neurological conditions such as multiple sclerosis .. are [also]
treated with the drug."

Aviv said that Pharmos hopes to begin final Phase III human trials on
Dexanabinol shortly, and could potentially market the drug by next year.

For more information, please contact either Paul Armentano or Allen
St. Pierre of The NORML Foundation @ (202) 483-8751.

***

IOM Findings Strengthen Administrative Challenge To Repeal Marijuana's
Prohibitive Status

March 23, 1999, New York, NY: Determinations released last week by
the Institute of Medicine that marijuana holds medical value and has a
low potential for abuse supports an administrative petition that seeks to
remove marijuana's classification as a Schedule I prohibited drug.

Petitioners Jon Gettman, former NORML National Director, and Trans
High Corporation, publisher of High Times Magazine, announced last week
that the IOM findings back their administrative effort to reclassify
marijuana. "The IOM findings support [our] petition to the DEA demanding
the reclassification of marijuana from a Schedule I drug like cocaine and
heroin to a lower classification consistent with its therapeutic
potential and relative harmlessness," said NORML Legal Committee member
Michael Kennedy, attorney for the petitioners.

By definition, all Schedule I drugs must have a "high potential for
abuse" and "no currently accepted medical use in treatment." In
contrast, the IOM report found that "few marijuana users develop
dependence," and called the drug's withdrawal symptoms "mild and
short-lived." IOM researchers further determined that there is no
evidence marijuana acts as a gateway to harder drug use, and summarized,
"Except for the harms associated with smoking, the adverse effects of
marijuana use are within the range of effects tolerated for other
medications."

Gettman and Trans High Corporation filed an administrative petition
with the Drug Enforcement Administration in 1995 arguing that marijuana
lacks the requirements necessary for classification as a Schedule I or
Schedule II drug. Last year, the DEA requested the Department of Health
and Human Services (HHS) to conduct a "scientific and medical evaluation
of the available data and provide a scheduling recommendation" for
marijuana and other cannabinoid drugs. That recommendation is still
pending.

For more information, please contact either Jon Gettman @ (540)
882-9002 or Allen St. Pierre of The NORML Foundation @ (202) 483-8751.

				- END -

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

Driver's license stripe idea stalls (The Associated Press says an Oregon
House committee Wednesday shelved a bill that would put a red stripe on the
driver's licenses of convicted drunken drivers, criticizing it as nothing
more than a toothless gesture.)

Pubdate: Thu, Mar 25 1999
Source: Associated Press
Copyright: Associated Press
Website: http://www.oregonlive.com/
Forum: http://forums.oregonlive.com/
Author: Associated Press

Driver's license stripe idea stalls

From The Associated Press

SALEM -- An Oregon House committee Wednesday shelved a bill that would put a
red stripe on the driver's licenses of convicted drunken drivers,
criticizing it as nothing more than a toothless gesture.

The House Transportation Committee didn't even move the measure for a vote
after harsh criticisms.

"Why not put a purple stripe on the licenses of people who are convicted of
some things?" said Rep. Vicki Walker, D-Eugene. "And maybe a green stripe to
stop convicted child molesters from renting porno videos."

The bill, sponsored by House Speaker Lynn Snodgrass, R-Damascus, would have
placed a red stripe for two years on the licenses of drivers convicted of
drunken driving. For more serious offenses, involving accidents or injuries,
the red slash would stay for 10 years.

The stripe is intended as a warning sign to bartenders, who could use it in
deciding whether to serve customers.

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

Congressman attacks suicide law (According to the Oregonian, U.S.
Representative Tom Bliley of Virginia, an opponent of Oregon's
doctor-assisted suicide law, is pursuing a new strategy to limit the law's
effectiveness. Bliley, the chairman of the House Commerce Committee, on
Wednesday accused the federal Health Care Financing Administration of paying
for assisted-suicide services in Oregon in violation of a law banning federal
funds for such services.)

Newshawk: Portland NORML (http://www.pdxnorml.org/)
Pubdate: Thu, Mar 25 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: Jim Barnett and Erin Hoover Barnett of The Oregonian
staff

Congressman attacks suicide law

* Rep. Tom Bliley of Virginia accuses administrators of illegally using
federal funds to pay for assisted-suicide services in Oregon

A congressman who opposes Oregon's doctor-assisted suicide law is pursuing a
new strategy to limit the law's effectiveness.

Rep. Tom Bliley, R-Va., chairman of the House Commerce Committee, on
Wednesday accused the Health Care Financing Administration of paying for
assisted-suicide services in Oregon in violation of a law banning federal
funds for such services.

Bliley released a letter his committee received March 5 from HCFA
administrator Nancy-Ann Min Deparle, who acknowledged there was a "remote
possibility" that a doctor might have mistakenly submitted an
assisted-suicide claim to the Oregon Health Plan before Dec. 1, 1998.

On Dec. 1, the Oregon Health Plan launched its system for covering assisted
suicides, using state money. The same system is used to pay for abortions,
for which federal funding is also banned.

Deparle's letter said the Oregon Health Plan had taken sufficient steps to
comply with a 1997 law banning federal funding of assisted suicides. Claims
for these services are sent to a separate post office box, and staff time
spent processing these claims is paid only with state dollars.

Although Medicaid might have reimbursed an assisted-suicide claim, such a
mistake was "highly unlikely," Deparle said.

The window of time that a claim might have been erroneously processed was
after the state decided in February 1998 that assisted suicide would be
covered by the Oregon Health Plan but before the plan's administrators had
devised a separate billing system.

Claims for services, such as office visits for dying patients pursuing
assisted suicide or for the lethal prescription itself, could have been
submitted before the plan was able to flag and separate those claims, an
Oregon Health Plan official said.

The Oregon Health Division reported in February that of the 15 people who
used assisted suicide to die in 1998, two were on the Oregon Health Plan.

Bliley seized on Deparle's acknowledgment that a mistake was possible.
Payment of an assisted-suicide claim "would be a clear violation of the
law," Bliley said, adding that the Commerce Committee would investigate
whether the law had been broken.

Bliley's committee passed up a chance to weigh in on the issue last year.
But he might be taking up the mantle of another powerful Republican, Rep.
Henry Hyde of Illinois, who led a charge against the Oregon law last summer
and fall.

Hyde, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, pushed through a bill to
prohibit doctors from prescribing lethal doses of drugs, but the measure
stalled in the waning days of the 105th Congress.

Public funding of assisted suicide has been a contentious issue, both
nationally and locally. Opponents contend that using public dollars
sanctions the practice of assisted suicide or opens up the possibility that
poor people covered by the Oregon Health Plan could be steered toward it as
a cheap end-of-life option. Proponents of public funding say not covering
assisted suicide discriminates against the poor.

Health Care Financing Administration officials visited Oregon and asked
Oregon Health Plan officials to take several steps to address Bliley's
concerns, said Lynn Read, assistant director of the state Office of Medical
Assistance Programs, which administers the health plan.

Oregon officials will report to HCFA by April 1. If billing mistakes are
found, adjustments will be made to reimburse with state dollars any federal
money spent, Read said.

Read's office is developing special billing codes for services related to
assisted suicide, so that if a claim is submitted to the wrong place, the
computer will reject it.

You can reach Jim Barnett at 202-383-7819 or by e-mail at
jim.barnett@newhouse.com. You can reach Erin Hoover Barnett at 503-294-5011
or by e-mail at ehbarnett@news.oregonian.com

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

Jury out on medical pot claim (The Modesto Bee says a jury in Calaveras
County, California - where voters opposed Proposition 215 - deliberated for
nearly two hours Wednesday without reaching a verdict in the cultivation
trial of Robert Galambos, a medical-marijuana patient who says his 382
marijuana plants were intended for himself and an Oakland medical marijuana
dispensary. Galambos' defense attorney from San Francisco, J. Tony Serra, the
subject of the Hollywood movie "True Believer," made an impassioned argument
alternating between whispers and roars.)

Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 13:17:49 -0600
From: "Frank S. World" (compassion23@geocities.com)
Organization: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/7417/
To: DPFCA (dpfca@drugsense.org)
Subject: DPFCA: US CA MODBEE MMJ: Jury out on medical pot claim
Sender: owner-dpfca@drugsense.org
Reply-To: "Frank S. World" (compassion23@geocities.com)
Organization: DrugSense http://www.drugsense.org/dpfca/
Source: Modesto Bee
Website http://www.modbee.com/
Feedback http://www.modbee.com/man/help/contact.html
Pubdate: March 25, 1999

JURY OUT ON MEDICAL POT CLAIM

By Ron DeLacy Bee staff writer (Published: Thursday, March 25, 1999)

SAN ANDREAS -- A Calaveras County jury deliberated for nearly two hours
Wednesday without reaching a verdict in the case of a 34-year-old man who
claims his marijuana plantation was for medical use and protected under
California's Proposition 215.

That's the 1996 Compassionate Use Initiative, which allows people with
doctors' endorsements or caregivers of those people to grow pot.

Defendant Robert Galambos claims both -- that he needed marijuana to ease
his own lingering misery from a car wreck about 10 years ago that fractured
his skull and put him in intensive care for eight days, and also to supply
an Oakland cannabis club that would provide marijuana for AIDS, cancer and
other patients under Proposition 215.

He was busted in July 1997, when agents gathered 382 young pot plants and
about 6 pounds of bagged marijuana from around his home in Paloma in western
Calaveras County.

Galambos faces felony charges of cultivation of marijuana and possession for
sale. Deputy District Attorney Seth Matthews said the maximum sentence is
three years, eight months, in prison.

To Matthews, the case is relatively simple -- a guy grows pot, a guy gets
busted, a guy claims medicinal exemption after the fact.

Galambos has a legitimate doctor's endorsement for his own use, but he
didn't get it until two months after his arrest. And, while he did have a
contract with the Oakland club before the bust, he doesn't deny that the
bagged marijuana was from a 1996 crop, planted before Proposition 215 was
passed.

"He (Galambos) didn't conform his conduct to the law," Matthews told jurors
in his closing argument.

But J. Tony Serra, Galambos' defense attorney from San Francisco, argued
that his client had tried to get his own personal-use permit long before his
arrest, but that doctors in "zero tolerance" Calaveras County wanted no part
of it.

And Galambos grew for the Oakland club in anticipation of Proposition 215's
passage, Serra said, out of a sincere desire to help people.

Helping people was Galambos' background, Serra said, and there was no
evidence of profiteering -- no fancy cars turned up by investigators, no
snitches talking about buying marijuana from him, no stashed goo-gobs of
cash, no bank accounts, no sales records -- nothing but a lot of pot, some
of it mildewed and unsmokable.

In an impassioned argument alternating between whispers and roars, his hands
sometimes flailing and sometimes held meekly behind his back, Serra begged
the jurors to see Galambos as a decent, kind, principled man trying to help
people, not make money from them.

Serra pleaded for jurors to hold out against the strong-armed law, to show
courage, set a local legal precedent.

It was vintage Serra, the subject of the Hollywood movie "True Believer,"
several times calling his client the real "true believer," exhorting jurors
to take the path of good, like his client had.

When his argument ended, more than half of about 40 spectators, including
nearly 20 from a Columbia cannabis club, burst into applause.

That's a no-no in court, and an infuriated Judge John E. Martin warned that
if he heard it again, he would clear the courtroom.

But Serra had been a hit, at least with most of the spectators. He wasn't so
sure about the jury, which wasn't any cannabis club and which had come from
a notoriously conservative county that voted against Proposition 215. This
isn't San Francisco.

Serra knew that. And he had been reminded of it last week, during jury
selection, when he asked a prospective anti-marijuana juror if he wouldn't
at least concede that the plant does seem to help some seriously ailing
people. People with AIDS, for instance.

"Up here, Mr. Serra," the would-be juror responded, "we believe in Adam and
Eve, not Adam and Steve."

That man didn't make the jury. As for the seven women and five men who did,
before they went home Wednesday night they asked the judge to send them a
copy of the Proposition 215 law.

They will get that before resuming deliberations today.

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

Breaking The Medical-Marijuana Logjam (The Chico News & Review, in Northeast
California, says Humbolt County medical-marijuana activist Robert Harris and
others are convinced that an Arcata ordinance designed to implement
Proposition 215 could serve as a model for other California cities,
particularly Chico. Arcata Police Chief Mel Brown and local marijuana
caregivers fashioned the measure together. After being approved by the Arcata
City Council it became law in March 1998. Four members of the Chico City
Council say they would be willing to discuss implementing an ordinance
similar to Arcata's, but two others remain skeptical of the very legitimacy
of medical marijuana.)

Date: Sat, 20 Mar 1999 05:22:29 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US CA: MMJ: Breaking The Medical-Marijuana Logjam
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Kim Levin
Pubdate: 25 Feb 1999
Source: Chico News & Review (CA)
Copyright: 1999 Chico Community Publishing, Inc.
Contact: chicoletters@newsreview.com
Fax: 530 894-0143
Mail: 353 East Second Street, Chico, CA 95928
Website: http://www.newsreview.com/
Author: Kevin Jeys

BREAKING THE MEDICAL-MARIJUANA LOGJAM

Arcata's Top Cop May Have Devised Solution To Prop. 215 Standstill

More than two years after California voters approved Proposition 215, the
ballot initiative legalizing the medical use of marijuana, prospective
patients throughout the state still find it exceedingly difficult to access
and consume medicinal cannabis in a safe, affordable and legally sanctioned
manner. The open enmity of man law-enforcement officials and the
extra-legal shenanigans of some Prop. 215 proponents have combined to
deprive thousands of California citizens of what, under state law, is now
simply another form of medicine.

It is possible that this situation may soon change. Unlike his predecessor,
anti-Prop. 215 zealot Dan Lungren, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer
has decided not to actively pursue prosecution of medical-marijuana
caregiving associations sanctioned by local law enforcement. Lockyer has
also formed a statewide task force to study ways to more precisely define
and effectively implement the sometimes hazy provisions of the initiative.

In addition, some medical-marijuana proponents are now touting as "the
best available solution" an enabling ordinance drawn up in large part by a
n member of law enforcement. In the city of Arcata - deep in the hear to
California's marijuana rich "Emerald Triangle" - police chief Mel Brown,
together with local marijuana caregivers, fashioned a measure approved by
the Arcata City Council that incorporates much of Prop. 215 into the city
municipal code. Humbolt County activist Robert Harris, who assisted in
assembling the ordinance, is convinced the Arcata example can serve as a
model for other California cities.

"We need to bring the battle out of the courtrooms," Harris says, "and into
the council chambers."

In January of 1997, Brown became the first law enforcement official in the
state to announce he intended to implement the provisions of Prop. 215.
Working with members of his city's Humbolt Cannabis Center, Brown devised a
pre-certification program to assist patients in lawfully accessing medical
marijuana.

"The stupid thing gained national recognition, for some crazy reason,"
Brown says. "People just went nuts. I guess it was the oddity of law
enforcement working together with those darn marijuana types."

For Brown, however, the program was "a simple matter of departmental
self-preservation." In the days following the passage of Prop. 215, "it
seemed like everybody in this town caught with marijuana - and believe me,
there's a lot of it up here - said, 'hey, I've got a letter from Dr.
Feelgood saying I can have this.'" But with the city's certification
program in place, "nobody who doesn't actually have one tries to tell my
cops they have a recommendation from a doctor."

Recognizing that Brown had put himself "out on a limb a bit," city
officials sought to codify his department's policy in Arcata's municipal
code. The resulting ordinance, which Brown says mostly "just parrots what
Prop. 215 says," was assembled primarily by Brown, City Attorney Nancy
Diamond, and Jason Browne of the Humbolt Cannabis Center, who Brown credits
with "wanting to help patients, rather than advance some pro-legalization
agenda." Approved by the Arcata City Council, the measure became law in
March 1998.

Under the Arcata ordinance, a medical-marijuana patient presents a photo ID
to the Arcata Police Department, together with the name of the doctor who
recommended the herb. After using the Internet to access an American
Medical Association site providing professional information on every
physician in the state, Brown calls the doctor, asking questions using data
culled from the AMA site "to make sure I'm not talking to some janitor."

Once satisfied he is indeed in contact with the physician, Brown then
determines whether the doctor has in fact recommended medical marijuana for
that patient. If the prospective patient passes this test, a card is
issued anointing the recipient as a legal consumer of medical marijuana.
To maintain privacy, each patient is identified in the department database
only "in code-there's no way to put a name on it," Brown says. "It
requires a willing police officer and a willing patient to decode it."

Brown also maintains an agreement with the Humbolt Cannabis Center
authorizing "a 24-hour warrantless right to search their facility. My
argument was, if they're legitimate center, they have nothing to hide, and
they accepted that." Brown additionally worked with the center to "set it
up like a farm co-op," where patients and caregivers "share in resources
and production, so no money is exchanged." Brown says this helped shield
the center from state and federal prosecutions, as agencies in those
jurisdictions particularly frown on operations that seem to be turning a
profit.

Brown says people occasionally try to take advantage of the ordinance,
inevitably to their sorrow. For instance, Humbolt County District Attorney
Terry Farmer has decreed that 10 plants is the limit a medical-marijuana
patient may grow for personal use. "We've had patients who were growing,
say 46 plants - the county drug task force comes in, yanks out 36, leaves
10, and then refers the person to the DA's office for prosecution," Brown
says. Arcata's ordinance, he stresses, "is not a stay-out-of-jail-free card."

Brown believes his city's policy serves "legally legitimate patients and
caregivers, as we don't want to unnecessarily detain or take things from
these people. People's individual constitutional rights mean a lot to us.
And it helps the department because I don't want my cops wasting their time
in court on stuff that's not going to be prosecuted."

The Arcata ordinance "works well here," Brown says. "Whether it would work
well in Chico, I don't know."

Four members of the Chico City Council say they would be willing to at
least discuss implement an ordinance similar to Arcata's, although two
remain extremely skeptical of the very legitimacy of medical marijuana.

Mayor Steve Bertagna believes "the jury is still out on whether marijuana
really has medical uses." He regards marijuana as "a transition drug" with
"great potential for misuse" and is therefore in the main "adamantly
opposed to loosening up at all on this issue." Still, Bertagna would not
rule out consideration of a city medical-marijuana ordinance, "though I'd
need to hear the medical community talk about it."

Councilmember Rick Keene also expressed "real reservations about it.
Whatever state law requires we'll of course conform to, but I don't feel
any more comfortable with medical marijuana now than when the thing was on
the ballot." Keene publicly opposed Prop. 215, believing it "primarily an
attempt by those who want to see marijuana legalized as a recreational drug
to get in through the back door." He remains convinced that, medical
marijuana "is not really necessary," and before considering an ordinance
like Arcata's, Keene would need "evidence from people in the medical
profession, not just some folks from the Cannabis Club. I want to hear
from doctors. I want to hear, 'I'm an oncologist, and I have X number of
patients dying of stomach cancer, and I've found marijuana really helps
them.'"

Councilmember Bill Johnston offered that "it's not unreasonable to take a
look at it," while Councilmember David Guzzetti "would support wanting more
information" on the Arcata ordinance. Guzzetti believes "we're way behind
he times in dealing with this matter," noting that "voters throughout the
state have been thwarted as to what they thought they were going to get in
approving Prop. 215."

Yet Guzzetti cautions that local officials who attempt to even rigorously
apply the provisions of Prop. 215 probably do so to their political peril.
In the fall of 1996, former Butte County Sheriff Mick Grey appeared before
the Chico City council seeking support from that body in opposing Prop.
215. When Guzzetti and then-mayor Michael McGinnis, both seeking
re-election in November 1996 balloting, decline to support Grey's
resolution, they were excoriated in a succession of slick mailers sent to
Chico voters accusing the pair of a "cavalier endorsement of illegal drugs"
that "undermine(s) our efforts to convince our children to remain
drug-free." Guzzetti managed to secure re-election, but McGinnis was driven
from office.

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

Principal's Principle (UPI says the principal of Our Lady of the Rosary Roman
Catholic School near Cincinnati, Ohio, will suspend all the sixth grade
students for one day for not informing on another student who brought
marijuana to school.)

Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1999 22:30:41 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US OH: Wire: Principal's Principle
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: Thu, 25 Mar 1999
Source: United Press International
Copyright: 1999 United Press International

PRINCIPAL'S PRINCIPLE

All sixth grade students at Our Lady of the Rosary Roman Catholic
School near Cincinnati will be suspended for at least one day for not
informing on a student who brought marijuana to school. The principal
says 30 students and their parents must attend a drug education
session or the suspension will be extended to four days.

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

Why Is Marijuana For The Suffering Still Illegal? (An op-ed in the Bergen
Record, in New Jersey, says the United States is a great nation, dedicated to
freedom, roaming the planet to bring justice to the oppressed, comfort to the
suffering, democracy to all. And yet, we remain unspeakably cruel to our
fellow citizens. No other word exists to describe the federal government's
steadfast refusal to allow the medical use of marijuana. It is cruel -
heartless, sadistic, mean-spirited. "I have a friend with a chronic disease
of the nervous system. Marijuana is the only thing that alleviates the
symptoms. The medical establishment knows this. Others with the disease know
it. The government knows it. And yet, she cannot get relief from excruciating
pain because to do so would be to risk everything - her career, her good
name, her freedom.")

Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1999 06:11:20 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US NJ: OPED: Why Is Marijuana For The Suffering Still Illegal?
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: Thu, 25 Mar 1999
Source: Bergen Record (NJ)
Copyright: 1999 Bergen Record Corp.
Feedback: http://www.bergen.com/cgi-bin/feedback
Website: http://www.bergen.com/
Author: Mike Celzic

WHY IS MARIJUANA FOR THE SUFFERING STILL ILLEGAL?

WE ARE A GREAT NATION, dedicated to freedom, roaming the planet to
bring justice to the oppressed, comfort to the suffering, democracy to
all. And yet, we remain unspeakably cruel to our fellow citizens.

No other word exists to describe the federal government's steadfast
refusal to allow the medical use of marijuana. It is cruel -
heartless, sadistic, mean-spirited.

I have a friend with a chronic disease of the nervous system.
Marijuana is the only thing that alleviates the symptoms. The medical
establishment knows this. Others with the disease know it. The
government knows it. And yet, she cannot get relief from excruciating
pain because to do so would be to risk everything - her career, her
good name, her freedom.

People dying of full-blown AIDS can find some respite from nausea and
pain by smoking marijuana. It's a small thing, something to make a
terrible disease in its final stages a bit easier to bear. The
marijuana allows them to eat, to maintain strength. Every day, we
push feeding tubes down the throats of people who are comatose or
all-but-dead to keep them alive - sometimes against their wills. But
to give someone something he or she wants and needs to make the final
months, weeks, days, hours, and minutes easier is a crime.

The symptoms of multiple sclerosis, particularly spasmodic episodes,
are relieved by marijuana. This is not a theory. It is a fact, backed
up by the medical establishment, which has no shortage of pills and
nostrums and serums with which to dose the public.

But possessing or smoking marijuana is a crime, punishable in some
states by mandatory prison terms, and illegal in all. Voters in two
dozen states - including the bastion of conservatism, Arizona - have
passed referenda supporting the medical use of marijuana. One third
of adults in the nation have actually smoked marijuana - inhaled, too
- and have gone on to law-abiding lives in government, industry,
medicine, law, and even journalism, I'm told. Still, it remains illegal.

This is what a 1997 article in the New England Journal of Medicine
said on the subject:

"Doctors are not the enemy in the `war' on drugs; ignorance and
hypocrisy are. Research should go on, and while it does, marijuana
should be available to all patients who need it to help them undergo
treatment for life-threatening illnesses. ... As long as therapy is
safe and has not been proven ineffective, seriously ill patients {and
their physicians} should have access to whatever they need to fight
for their lives."

"To fight for their lives..." "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness..." Aren't these the values we say we stand for? We
prescribe codeine and morphine, ladle out Valium and antidepressants,
hand out painkillers of every type and description. We have laws that
make it a criminal act to attempt to help someone leave an agonizing
life of chronic disease and debilitation.

And then we make it another criminal act to try to ease the suffering
of those same people with a simple joint of marijuana.

What's happened to us, America? What happened to our ideals, our
empathy, our dedication to making life better? Why do we leap to help
the victims of disaster and war and the orphans of catastrophe, and
ignore the pain next door? Let my friend have her relief. Let the
dying enjoy a moment free of agony. Listen to the doctors, for once.
Legalize the medical use of marijuana.

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

Cities and towns that have discontinued the DARE program (A list subscriber
forwards a comprehensive list and asks for additions or corrections.)

Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 15:30:20 EST
Originator: dare-list@calyx.net
Sender: dare-list@calyx.net
From: "Kendra E. Wright" (kewright@erols.com)
To: Multiple recipients of list (dare-list@calyx.net)
Subject: cities dropping DARE

The following is an email from Dick Evans of the Voluntary Committee of
Lawyers in Massachusetts.

Kendra

A colleague has been maintaining a list a cities and towns that have
eliminated the DARE program. Here is his list as it now stands.
Additions/corrections are requested.

Dick Evans

***

Partial list of cities and towns that have discontinued the D.A.R.E program.

***

CA
Pescadero, CA
La Honda, CA
Oakland, CA
Buena Park, CA

IL
Buffalo Grove IL (Aptakisic-Tripp School District 102

ME
Lincoln, ME.

OH
Worley, OH.

NJ
Ridgewood, NJ

WA
Seattle, WA
Spokane, WA

NC
Fayetteville, NC

MA
Lawrence, MA
Lunenburg, MA (July 1998)
Harvard, MA (August 1998)

WI
Shorewood, WI

CO
Boulder, CO

NY
Shenendehowa Central School District, Clifton Park, NY

TX
Austin, TX

OR
Salem-Keizer School District, OR

***

On the evaluation list:

1. Shrewsbury, MA consultant hired
2. Barre-based Quabbin Regional School District considering downgrade
to extracurricular program

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

Over One Million American Non-Violent Prisoners (The Seattle
Post-Intelligencer cites a Justice Policy Institute figure.)

Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 23:10:31 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: Over One Million American Non-Violent Prisoners
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: John Smith
Pubdate: Thu, 25 Mar 1999
Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer (WA)
Copyright: 1999 Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Contact: editpage@seattle-pi.com
Website: http://www.seattle-pi.com/

Washington, D.C.: The number of people behind bars in America for
non-violent crimes -- everything from passing bad checks to dealing drugs --
rose above 1 million for the first time last year, according to the Justice
Policy Institute.

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

More Than 1M Nonviolent Prisoners (A lengthier Associated Press version says
U.S. Representative Charles Rangel, D-New York, cited the study as he pushed
for legislation eliminating mandatory five-year penalties for crack cocaine
crimes and an end to the sentencing disparity between offenses for crack and
powder cocaine.)

Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1999 22:30:45 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: Wire: More Than 1M Nonviolent Prisoners
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: cohip@levellers.org (Colo. Hemp Init. Project)
Pubdate: Thu, 25 Mar 1999
Source: Associated Press
Copyright: 1999 Associated Press
Author: ANNE GEARAN, Associated Press Writer

MORE THAN 1M NONVIOLENT PRISONERS

WASHINGTON -- Get-tough crime-fighting policies such as mandatory
minimum sentences and ``three strikes, you're out'' laws helped drive
the number of nonviolent inmates in American jails and prisons above 1
million last year, a group that opposes minimum sentences says.

The report Wednesday from the liberal-oriented Justice Policy
Institute concluded that since 1978, the number of criminals entering
jail or prison for violent offenses doubled, while those entering
incarceration for nonviolent convictions tripled.

The study follows a Justice Department report earlier this month that
showed the country's prison and jail population overall rose to about
1.8 million by the middle of last year -- its highest level ever and
double the number from 12 years before.

The liberal institute used the recent Justice Department statistics to
calculate the national breakdown of violent and nonviolent prisoners.

The Justice Department study did not break down violent and nonviolent
prisoners in the same way. But a department statistician, Allen J.
Beck, did not quibble with the Justice Policy Institute's calculation
that the nonviolent population has topped 1 million.

Beck did note that the most dramatic growth in all prison populations
peaked several years ago, and that the latter 1990s have been marked
by relative stability. ``The story is a lot more complex,'' than a
simple breakdown of violent and nonviolent inmates suggests, Beck said.

``Another problem is that here are some fairly serious offenses that
are considered nonviolent -- burglary, arson and drug trafficking for
example -- that reasonable people would consider very serious
offenses,'' Beck said. Justice Department statistics from mid-1998
show 74 percent of local jail inmates, 53 percent of state prison
inmates, and 88 percent of federal prisoners ``were imprisoned for
offenses which involved neither harm nor the threat of harm to a
victim,'' the Justice Policy Institute's report said.

The report estimates that at the end of 1998, there were 440,088
nonviolent jail inmates, 639,280 nonviolent state prison inmates and
106,090 nonviolent federal prisoners for a national total of 1,185,458
nonviolent prisoners.

The report calls 1998 the first full year the nonviolent prison
population was above 1 million, but its authors noted that the total
has hovered near 1 million for several years, and may have actually
passed that mark late in 1997.

Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., cited the study as he pushed for
legislation eliminating mandatory five-year penalties for crack
cocaine crimes and an end to the sentencing disparity between offenses
for crack and powder cocaine.

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

ACLU Calls for Reform of Racially Discriminatory Cocaine Laws (A press
release from the American Civil Liberties Union provides more details about
the reform bill introduced today by U.S. Representative Charles Rangel.)

Date: Sat, 27 Mar 1999 10:30:05 -0500
To: mattalk@islandnet.com
From: Dave Haans (haans@chass.utoronto.ca)
Subject: ACLU: On the "Crack Cocaine Equitable Sentencing Act"

ACLU Calls for Reform of Racially Discriminatory Cocaine Laws

Statement of Laura W. Murphy, Director,
ACLU Washington National Office

On the "Crack Cocaine Equitable Sentencing Act"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, March 25, 1999

WASHINGTON -- The ACLU is pleased to join Congressman Rangel to announce
introduction of the "Crack Cocaine Equitable Sentencing Act." The ACLU
has long advocated that Congress address the disparity in federal
sentencing for crack cocaine and powder cocaine.

This lingering disparity creates yet another civil rights crisis in our
criminal justice system. It exacerbates racially discriminatory
treatment at the hands of police and prosecutors, for although 13
percent of monthly drug users are black, African Americans are 37
percent of those arrested for drug possession. We believe that Congress
created the problem and it is up to Congress to solve it.

There is no reason to keep in place sentences for crack cocaine that are
100 times more severe than those for powder cocaine. Crack has not been
found to be more addictive or dangerous than powder cocaine, nor is
there any medical or scientific distinction between the two.

Our country should enter the new millennium as a world leader in
democracy, justice and freedom -- not a world leader in placing people
behind bars, the dubious distinction it now holds. One in 20 Americans
born this year will be imprisoned at some point in their lives,
according to the Department of Justice. For blacks, that ratio jumps
to one in four In California, for every black man attending the state's
universities, five are behind bars.

We are here today to bring our nation back on track, to stop the
misguided policies that have led to these grim statistics. Addressing
the crack/powder cocaine disparity is but one step. Mandatory minimum
prison sentences for non-violent drug crimes have fueled the growth of
one of our nation's fastest growing populations -- the incarcerated. The
sentencing laws for crack cocaine have had a devastating impact on
African-Americans: almost 90 percent of the people in prison for crack
under federal drug laws are black, even though twice as many whites as
blacks use crack.

Mandatory minimums -- such as the crack cocaine sentencing law -- have
failed. They have not stopped people from using or trafficking in drugs.
Mandatory minimums have taken away discretion from judges, who are often
forced to sentence first-time, low-level offenders to longer prison
sentences than drug kingpins.

Even our nation's drug czar, General McCaffrey, who said "the current
system is bad drug policy and bad law enforcement," recognizes that our
drug laws must be reformed. It is past time to provide prevention and
treatment programs to low-level offenders, not imprisonment.

For, as General McCaffrey himself observed, "We have a failed social
policy and it has to be re-evaluated. Otherwise we're going to bankrupt
ourselves. Because we can't incarcerate away the problem."

The ACLU urges Congress to adopt Representative Rangel's bill.

***

ACLU Freedom Network Web Page: http://www.aclu.org.
America Online users should check out our live chats, auditorium events,
*very* active message boards, and complete news on civil liberties, at
keyword ACLU.

***

ACLU Newsfeed
American Civil Liberties Union National Office
125 Broad Street
New York, New York 10004

For general information about the ACLU, write to info@aclu.org. To
subscribe to the ACLU Newsfeed, write to lyris@lists.aclu.org, with
"subscribe news" (without the quotation marks) in the body of the
message.

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

Internet: War On Drugs Launches Web Sites (The Dayton Daily News, in Ohio,
notes the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, has managed to get
ABC and America Online to provide web sites promoting fear, ignorance,
misinformation, and other aspects of the government's war on some drug
users.)

Date: Sat, 27 Mar 1999 08:23:33 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: Internet; War On Drugs Launches Web Sites
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: Thu, 25 Mar 1999
Source: Dayton Daily News (OH)
Contact: edletter@coxohio.com
Website: http://www.activedayton.com/partners/ddn/
Forum: http://www.activedayton.com/entertainment/forums_chat/

INTERNET; WAR ON DRUGS LAUNCHES WEB SITES

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House's anti-drug office announced
Wednesday two new Internet sites where children and their parents can
get information about fighting drugs.

The first site, on ABC's www.Freevibe.com, will contain drug
prevention messages for youngsters 10 to 13 years old. The site
contains graphics, games and interactivity to help viewer understand
the consequences of drug use.

The second site, on America Online's Parents' Drug Resource Center,
gives advice to parents and adult caregivers of children in that age
group. The AOL keyword for the site is "Drug Help."

"Unlike advertising and traditional media outreach, the Internet
transcends geographic and economic boundaries and allows new
communities to come together in an interactive substantive way," said
Gen. Barry McCaffrey of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

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

Anti-Drug Web Sites (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette version)

Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 19:10:05 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: Anti-Drug Web Sites
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: Thu, 25 Mar 1999
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA)
Copyright: 1999 PG Publishing.
Contact: letters@post-gazette.com
Website: http://www.post-gazette.com/

ANTI-DRUG WEB SITES

The White House's anti-drug office announced yesterday two new Internet
sites where children and their parents can get information about fighting
drugs.

The first site, on ABC's www.Freevibe.com, will contain drug prevention
messages for youngsters ages 10 to 13. The site contains graphics, games
and interactivity to help viewer understand the consequences of drug use.

The second site, on America Onlines' Parents' Durg Resource Center, gives
advice to parents and adult caregivers of children in that age group. The
AOL keyword for the site is "Drug Help."

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

It's a 1980s Policy on 1990s Drug Crime (Newsday columnist Sheryl McCarthy,
in New York, notices the Clinton administration claims to have a new
approach, but is using the same battle plan to fight the drug war that George
Bush drafted a decade ago. Two-thirds of the budget still goes to law
enforcement and only one-third to treatment, prevention and research. Instead
of arresting marijuana smokers, we should be going after hard drugs and
treating addicts. At McCaffrey's press conference, he repeated a remark he
heard somewhere that "the most dangerous person in America is a 12-year-old
smoking marijuana on a weekend." If that's what the war on drugs is about,
we're in deep trouble.)

Date: Sun, 28 Mar 1999 12:18:49 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: It's a 1980s Policy on 1990s Drug Crime
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Kevin Zeese http://www.csdp.org/
Pubdate: Thu, 25 Mar 1999
Source: Newsday (NY)
Copyright: 1999, Newsday Inc.
Page: A56
Contact: letters@newsday.com
Fax: (516)843-2986
Website: http://www.newsday.com/
Author: Sheryl McCarthy
Note: The website for the Marijuana Policy Project, mentioned below, is:
http://www.mpp.org/

IT'S A 1980S POLICY ON 1990S DRUG CRIME

TO HEAR Gen. Barry McCaffrey talk, you'd think he was leading his troops in
the right direction. The nation's drug czar was in New York City this week,
pushing a new set of drug statistics and describing his strategy for
attacking the nation's drug problem. "You hook drug treatment to the
criminal justice system. This is not a war on drugs. It's a cancer," said
McCaffrey, who's made a big deal out of pushing treatment, prevention and
research about the effect of drugs.

But, while the Clinton administration claims to have a new approach to the
drug problem, it's waging the same war on drugs that George Bush started a
decade ago. This year the federal government will spend $15 billion on drug
control, two-thirds of it for law enforcement (drug busts and locking
people up) and only one-third on treatment, prevention and research. That's
the same breakdown as 10 years ago.

Only now the government spends twice as much.

"McCaffrey is a liar," says Chuck Thomas, a spokesman for the Marijuana
Policy Project, an advocacy group that opposes criminalization of
marijuana. "McCaffrey says, 'Oh, our new strategy is prevention.' But it
isn't. It's the same old policy."

Gray-haired, and appearing fatherly when he talks about the harm caused by
illegal drugs, McCaffrey - who led troops in Vietnam and Iraq - puts a
friendly face on the government's scorched-earth drug policies. And he has
been known to lie. Last year he criticized the Dutch system, which allows
adults to buy small amounts of marijuana in coffee shops, claiming that the
crime rate in the Netherlands is 'twice the United States'. In fact, both
crime and marijuana use are lower in the Netherlands.

McCaffrey sabotaged Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala's
plan to fund needle-exchange programs, which have been proved to prevent
HIV infection, for fear of the political fallout. He then announced that he
and Shalala saw eye-to-eye on needle exchange. In an appearance at St.
Luke's Roosevelt Hospital this week, McCaffrey talked about the importance
of basing drug policy on the results of scientific research.

Yet he has ignored 30 years of research showing that smoking marijuana
doesn't lead to hard drug use, is not particularly addictive, doesn't kill
brain cells or sap motivation, doesn't damage the lungs any more than
smoking tobacco or lead to crime.

After the federal Institutes of Medicine released a report last week saying
that marijuana has medical uses for the sick, McCafrey has tentatively
suggested that doctors might be allowed to prescribe it for sick patients.
The best-kept secret of the war on drugs is that's it's being waged against
a small enemy. Of the 14 million Americans who use illegal drugs, 11
million are people who smoke marijuana or hashish a few times a week.

Last year police arrested 700,000 people for marijuana crimes, most of them
for possession. Despite stories about how drugs are ravaging our
communities, hard drug use is way down since the mid-1980s. There's a
small, steady core of heroin users, all of them adults, and a dwindling
group of cocaine and crack users. Virtually no teenagers in New York City
use crack, recent studies show. Yet half of all drug arrests nationally are
for marijuana.

Drinking alcohol can lead to violent behavior, running over someone with a
car, passing out, throwing up on someone's porch or urinating in someone's
yard. I've never known anyone who became violent after smoking marijuana or
who died from an overdose. I don't want to see school children smoking all
day long, so we should prosecute people who sell marijuana to minors, just
as we do those who sell alcohol and cigarettes. People get an idea in their
heads and can't let it go. Which is why we continue to equate marijuana
with hard drugs, forcing those who want it into the hard drug underground.

Plenty of folks have an interest in keeping it illegal - police officials,
the people who run the prisons and politicians experiencing the kind of
moralistic fervor we haven't seen since the late 19th century. Bill
Clinton, still embarrassed about a hitless toke he took 35 years ago,
doesn't have the courage to admit this policy is wrong.

Instead of arresting marijuana smokers, we should be going after the hard
drugs and treating the addicts. At McCaffrey's press conference, he
repeated a remark he heard somewhere that "the most dangerous person in
America is a 12-year-old smoking marijuana on a weekend." If that's what
the war on drugs is about, we're in deep trouble.

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

Bumper crop in Mexico resulting in large marijuana seizures (The Associated
Press says a bumper crop of marijuana is apparently making its way to the
Lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas, resulting in huge seizures. From Falcon Dam
to Boca Chica, where the Rio Grande empties into the Gulf of Mexico, agents
have seized 222,304 pounds of marijuana valued at $178 million in the last
six months - 50 percent more than the same period a year ago.)

From: "Bob Owen@W.H.E.N." (when@olywa.net)
To: "_Drug Policy --" (when@hemp.net)
Subject: Bumper crop in Mexico resulting in large marijuana seizures
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1999 21:02:59 -0800
Sender: owner-when@hemp.net

Bumper crop in Mexico resulting in large marijuana seizures
Border Patrol has confiscated 222,304 pounds in six months

03/25/99

Associated Press

ROMA, Texas - A bumper crop of marijuana is apparently making its way to the
Lower Rio Grande Valley, resulting in huge seizures.

Fifty-one Border Patrol agents working along the Rio Grande in Starr County
have seized 27,840 pounds of marijuana this month, five times more than what
was confiscated in February, officials told The (McAllen) Monitor.

"It's just starting to peak now," said Fabian Casas, agent-in-charge of the
Border Patrol station in Rio Grande City.

From Falcon Dam to Boca Chica, where the Rio Grande empties into the Gulf of
Mexico, agents have seized 222,304 pounds of marijuana valued at $178
million in the last six months - 50 percent more than the same period a year
ago.

Agents suspect that a bumper crop of Mexican marijuana, grown mostly in the
mountainous Pacific coast states, is responsible for the increase. The
harvest season ends in the Mexican coastal states in April or May.

Monday night, officers with the Rio Grande City Drug Task Force raided a
home in Roma and found 11,071 pounds of marijuana. Bales of the drug,
wrapped in cellophane and duct tape, were stacked from floor to ceiling in
the living room, with a narrow path cleared to the bathroom, where more
bundles were stashed. No one was home at the time.

Last week, the DEA seized five tons of marijuana at a McAllen warehouse and
arrested three people. Authorities found another five tons and arrested two
men Feb. 19 at a home near Penitas.

"Hardly ever a week goes by when we don't seize 1,000 pounds," said Barry
Abbott, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration in McAllen.

Although agents said they expect the record smuggling pace to continue in
the near future, McAllen Sector Border Patrol Chief Joe Garza said he
believes the increase in seizures might give smugglers second thoughts.

"We think that smugglers of narcotics will eventually relocate because we're
hitting them pretty hard," he said.

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

GOP To Seek Change On Mexico (The Washington Post says U.S. Representative
John L. Mica, R-Florida, the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Criminal
Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources, and Representative Benjamin A.
Gilman, R-New York, the chairman of the International Relations Committee,
cited new allegations yesterday that senior Mexican military and political
officials were involved in drug trafficking as they announced they would
co-sponsor a bill that would overturn President Clinton's certification of
Mexico as an ally in the war on some drug users, but waive economic
penalties.)

Date: Sat, 27 Mar 1999 12:06:51 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: GOP To Seek Change On Mexico
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: Thu, 25 Mar 1999
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 1999 The Washington Post Company
Page: A27
Address: 1150 15th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20071
Feedback: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Author: Douglas Farah, Washington Post Foreign Service

GOP TO SEEK CHANGE ON MEXICO

Lawmakers Will Try To Alter Certification

Leading House Republicans, citing new allegations that senior Mexican
military and political officials are involved in drug trafficking,
announced yesterday they will seek to overturn President Clinton's
decision to certify Mexico as a full partner in the fight against
illicit drugs.

The allegations were laid out yesterday by William F. Gately, a
retired senior Customs Service official, who, under oath before the
House Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human
Resources, said undercover investigations last year found evidence
that Mexican Defense Minister Gen. Enrique Cervantes was trying to
launder $150 million. Senior members of Mexican president's office
were also trying to launder undetermined amounts, he added.

Despite a history of widespread corruption in Mexico's law enforcement
agencies and its military, Clinton certified on March 1 that Mexico
was "fully cooperating" in fighting drug trafficking. Congress can
overturn the certification decision if both houses approve doing so
within 30 days of the announcement.

Rep. John L. Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the subcommittee, and Rep.
Benjamin A. Gilman (R-N.Y.), chairman of the International Relations
Committee, co-sponsored a bill that would decertify Mexico but allow
the president to waive the economic penalties accompanying such a
decision. Congressional staffers said the resolution was receiving
broad bipartisan support in the House, but the Senate was cooler to
the idea.

"The president's decision to certify Mexico as fully cooperating
cannot and ought not stand unchallenged," Gilman said.

Gately, whose allegations were reported last week in the New York
Times, said a large money-laundering investigation known as Casablanca
was shut down last year under political pressure. The shutdown came
despite 15 audio and video cassettes from the investigation that
showed drug traffickers wanted to launder an additional $1.15 billion,
he charged.

"It is indisputable that the secretary of defense of Mexico was
identified as one of the owners of the money on several occasions"
during the investigation, Gately said in his testimony, explaining
that Cervantes was identified as the owner of $150 million of the
total amount. Two other drug traffickers, he said, each owned $500
million of the total.

Under questioning, Gately said the tapes also contained a reference to
the office of the presidency, but he did not elaborate. He
acknowledged that while the tapes contained references to the
secretary of defense, they did not mention Cervantes by name.

Gately's assertions about the closing of the Casablanca operation,
which resulted in the seizure of $100 million, and the indictment of
three Mexican financial institutions and 112 individuals, have been
challenged by others involved in the investigation, including Customs
Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly.

The Mexican government has expressed outrage at the allegations, which
they have denied.

But Rep. Robert L. Barr Jr. (R-Ga.), said that, in a series of
classified briefings of the subcommittee by U.S. intelligence
agencies, "the information points to corruption at the very highest
level of the Mexican government."

Gately said that, after the Casablanca operation was shut down, no one
"reviewed or evaluated these tapes and transcripts for their
evidentiary value," despite the briefing he said he gave to his
superiors. He said he believed the operation was shut down prematurely
and the allegations were not investigated because of "political
considerations."

In a letter to Mica, Kelly said any allegations that the operation was
shut down "so that U.S. officials could keep high-ranking Mexican
government officials from being investigated as part of the case, is
grossly untrue and irresponsible. . . . At no time was any evidence
developed that could substantiate these allegations."

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

Grandson Of Italian King Faces Drugs Trial (The Daily Telegraph, in Britain,
says Prince Serge of Yugoslavia, a grandson of the last king of Italy, faces
five years in jail after he was allegedly caught last year buying cocaine in
Turin, where he has a home and works as a design consultant.)

Date: Sat, 27 Mar 1999 10:42:11 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Italy: Grandson Of Italian King Faces Drugs Trial
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: Thu, 25 Mar 1999
Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)
Copyright: of Telegraph Group Limited 1999
Contact: dtletters@telegraph.co.uk
Website: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Author: Bruce Johnston

GRANDSON OF ITALIAN KING FACES DRUGS TRIAL

PRINCE Serge of Yugoslavia, a grandson of the last king of Italy,
should stand trial on charges of drug dealing, say Turin
prosecutors.

The ruling is a fresh blow for Italy's troubled house of Savoy weeks
after it was rocked by murder. The 36-year-old son of Princess Maria
Pia of Savoy, daughter of King Umberto II, was allegedly caught by
detectives last year buying cocaine in Turin, where, despite having an
official Monte Carlo residence, he has a home and works as a design
consultant. Magistrates say they have photographs to back their
claims, together with evidence from witnesses.

They accuse the prince of buying cocaine "more than once a month from
January 1997 to April 1998 for the purpose of furnishing third
parties" during soirees he threw for Turin's "jeunesse doree" at his
home in the city centre. A female friend was quoted as telling police:
"He used to prepare everything and pass the cocaine round on a tray.
We all used to sniff it together before going out to a
discotheque."

While admitting to investigators that he had taken the drug, the
prince has denied dealing in cocaine, claiming that it would put his
professional reputation at risk. Prince Serge, who uses the
appellation His Royal Highness, faces up to five years in jail if he
is ordered to stand trial and is convicted. Among the prosecution
witnesses is his own alleged supplier of cocaine, Germano Ranosi, who
claims to have gone to four or five of Serge's cocaine parties.

It the latest embarrassing episode to befall the troubled Italian
former royal house, which was in mourning last month after the murder
of Luis Reyna Corvalan, an uncle of Prince Serge.

The victim of an apparent crime of passion, Corvalan, the husband of
Princess Maria Beatrice of Savoy, Maria Pia's sister, was found naked
in a bathroom in his luxury villa south of Mexico City, strangled with
the belt of his dressing gown. Italians voted down their monarchy in
1946 for capitulating to fascism, sending the direct male line of the
900-year-old dynasty into exile.

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Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies, Year 5, No. 12 (A summary of
European and international drug policy news, from CORA, in Italy)

Date: Tue, 30 Mar 1999 11:12:30 +0200
To: CORAFax EN (cora.belgique@agora.stm.it)
From: CORAFax (cora.belgique@agora.stm.it)
From: "CRRH mailing list" (restore@crrh.org)
Subject: CORAFax #12 (EN)

ANTIPROHIBITIONIST OF THE ENTIRE WORLD ....
Year 5 #12, March 25 1999

***

Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies

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

***

director: Vincenzo Donvito
All rights reserved

***

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

***

CORA NEWS

***

ITALY - THE STATE COUNCIL ACT REASONABLY AND WITH INDEPENDENCE OF JUDGEMENT.
This is what the CORA says after the sentence that has established that a
soldier who smokes a joint has the same rights as those who don't wear a
uniform, and cannot be expelled from the army.

***

CLIPPINGS

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SWITZERALND - GENEVA - During the tenth International Conference on Harm
Reduction it was said that thanks to this kind of policy in the course of
six years deaths for overdose have gone down by almost 50%.

NEWS FROM THE WORLD

***

000546 17/03/99
E.U. / SPAIN
ADDICTION
EL PAIS

53% of the women that enter jail are drug addicts, while 8.6% have AIDS. In
the past ten years the number of convicted women has tripled (3.633). The
Director of the State jails, Mr. Angel Yuste, has given these figures to
the Parliament.

***

000551 22/03/99
ASIA / CAMBODIA
CONSUMERS
THE TIMES

Is hippie tourism coming back? It seems so, after some women were arrested
while selling marijuana, once legal, to tourists in Russian market of Phnom
Pen.

***

000547 21/03/99
E.U. / SPAIN
DRUG ADDICTION
EL PAIS

The average female drug addict is a mother; lives with a drug addicted
companion and usually has been rejected by her own family. These
characteristics make her more vulnerable than the average male drug addict
and more difficult to help.

***

000545 18/03/99
AMERICA / USA
HEALTH
MISCELLANEOUS

Marijuana is not a starting point for passing to stronger drugs. These are
the conclusions of a team of experts designated by the White House to study
the possible medical use of cannabis. They also point out its effectiveness
as a painkiller.

***

000557 23/03/99
E.U. / SPAIN / MADRID
HEALTH
EL PAIS

The bus drivers of bus line N.130, the so-called 'heroin line' because it
crosses areas of the city controlled by drug apushers, are considered so at
risk that the all have been vaccinated against tubercolosis and hepatitis B.

***

000558 23/03/99
E.U. / GERMANY
HEALTH
SUEDDEUTSCHE Z.

The Government's responsible for drugs, Christa Nickels, approves
therapeutic use of marijuana for AIDS, cancer and multiple sclerosis patients.

***

000543 17/03/99
E.U. / SPAIN
INFORMATION
EL PAIS

7% of the Spain's teachers regularly talk about the issue of drugs and
alcohol with their students; 69% do so every now and then; 50% asks for
specific didactic material; 44.2% asks for external help from experts.
These figures are from the Foundation for Help Agaist Drug Addiction.

***

000554 18/03/99
EUROPE / SWITZERLAND / GENEVA
INFORMATION
NEUE ZUERCHER Z.

An analysis of the Swiss, Dutch and German experiments was made during the
International Symposium on Controlled Distribution of Heroin. No
triumphalisms, and many and well accepted criticisms.

***

000544 22/03/99
E.U. / ITALY / GENOVA
INITIATIVE
LA REPUBBLICA

The priest Don Andrea Gallo, after having planted cannabis with the members
of a centre for social activities to protest against prohibitionist laws,
said: 'I have studied the Holy Scriptures and have discovered that Noah had
a small cannabis plant on his Ark. Believe me, it's not a joke!'.

***

000555 23/03/99
E.U. / SPAIN / MADRID
INITIATIVE
EL PAIS

Independent rehabilitation centres want to fight drug addiction their way.
After the Andalusian project of controlled distribution of heroin the
Madrid community intends to open 'narcosalas' for drug addicts.

***

000556 23/03/99
E.U. / GERMANY
INITIATIVE
SUEDDEUTSCHE Z.

Debate on drugs: if the Responsible for the Cdu/Csu-Fraktion wants to
abandon his prohibitionist position, all the other members of the Csu and
those of the Cdu will refuse any type of dialogue.

***

000552 23/03/99
E.U. / SPAIN
JURISPRUDENCE
EL PAIS

The Tribunal Supremo has revoked the sentence that condemned a woman for
drug trafficking. The Guardia Civil had previously found she was hiding
capsules of heroin in her vagina. The motivation for revoking the sentence
is that proof was obtained through humiliating and intimidating means.

***

000542 19/03/99
E.U. / ITALY / ROME
JUSTICE
CORRIERE DELLA SERA

Eighteen kilos of cocaine have been stolen from a safe in which the Court
kept them as material evidence of crime. The Court's personnel are
suspected of having collaborated with the thieves.

***

000553 23/03/99
E.U. / ITALY
JUSTICE
IL GIORNALE

To be found smoking a joint can not lead to be expelled from the army or to
be degraded. This is what tha State Council established after having
rejected an appeal by the Ministry of Defence against another sentence of
the Sardinian Administrative Court which considered the punishment
inflicted to a Roman soldier who had smoked marijuana as being out of
proportion with the offence.

***

000559 23/03/99
AFRICA / NIGERIA
PUSHERS
LA REPUBBLICA

A new type of criminality which strives upon drug traffic is rapidly
growing: The Nigerian connection. It contacts white people via Internet to
enrol them in the import-export of drugs.

***

000548 17/03/99
AMERICA
WAR ON DRUGS
LIBERATION

Bill Clinton has included Tahiti among those countries judged as being drug
exporters, but having seen its economic situation, has not imposed any kind
of sanction.

***

000549 22/03/99
AMERICA / BOLIVIA
WAR ON DRUGS
DER SPIEGEL

To convince the public opinion of his serious anti drug commitment,
President Hugo Banzer has ordered that drug tests be performed on all State
employees and public figures, including members of Parliament and of
judicial power.

***

000550 20/03/99
AMERICA / COLOMBIA
WAR ON DRUGS
CORRIERE DELLA SERA

Interviewed during an official visit to Italy, President Pastrana has
confirmed his commitment to stop the rebels from helping Narcos. He said
'this way the peace negotiation will not only change life in Colombia for
the better, but also extend peacefulness to Europe and America'.

***

CORAFax 1999

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[End]