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Laws separate euthanasia and assisted suicide (The Oregonian vies with the
Catholic Sentinel for right-to-life subscribers.)

Newshawk: Portland NORML (http://www.pdxnorml.org/)
Pubdate: Wed, Apr 14 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: Erin Hoover Barnett, the Oregonian

Laws separate euthanasia and assisted suicide

* Some who see the active taking of lives as inevitable are beginning to
nudge the debate beyond the Death With Dignity Act

Dr. Jack Kevorkian is in prison for giving a man with Lou Gehrig's disease a
lethal injection. But, as Kevorkian intended, the debate over legalizing
euthanasia is far from dead.

To the casual observer, the difference between physician-assisted suicide
and euthanasia may seem academic.

Assisted suicide is death by doctor-prescribed drugs that the terminally ill
patient swallows. It is legal in Oregon. Euthanasia is commonly thought of
as death by lethal injection, administered by someone else, usually a
doctor. It is illegal nationwide.

But just where the line is between the two, and when and if that line will
be crossed into legalized euthanasia, is the new frontier in the
right-to-die debate, Oregon activists say.

"It's already here," Ellie Jenny, a disabled-rights activist, said of the
euthanasia discussion.

Jenny abhors the prospect of legalized euthanasia. A member of Not Dead Yet,
she says the right-to-die movement reinforces the idea that life is not
worth living if you are suffering a disabling and terminal illness. She
worries about the right to die becoming the duty to die, particularly in an
era of expensive health care.

Yet disabled people in situations like Kevorkian's patient, Thomas Youk, who
was paralyzed by Lou Gehrig's disease and unable to swallow lethal drugs,
are likely to become catalysts for making euthanasia legal.

Jenny points to a letter written last month by David Schuman, Oregon deputy
attorney general, to state Sen. Neil Bryant, R-Bend.

Responding to a question from Bryant, Schuman wrote that Oregon's Death With
Dignity Act does not on its face discriminate against people who are too
disabled to swallow. But, he wrote, the law would, in effect, be
discriminatory because it requires self-administration, and not everyone is
capable of that.

"The Act would be treated by the courts as though it explicitly denied the
'benefit' of a 'death with dignity' to disabled people," Schuman wrote.
"This fact, in turn, makes the Death With Dignity Act vulnerable to
challenge" under the Oregon Constitution and the Americans With Disabilities
Act.

Derek Humphry, a founder of the Hemlock Society and author of the book
"Final Exit," says Kevorkian's conviction and sentencing shows the need to
make an exception in homicide laws for "a justifiable act of compassion."

"It's got to come," Humphry said of legalizing euthanasia. "I think this is
a turning point, where people will begin to seriously address this question."

But Humphry realizes that legalizing assisted suicide in this country would
have to be a first step toward legalizing euthanasia.

Right-to-die initiatives in 1991 in Washington and in 1992 in California
sought to legalize euthanasia. Voters rejected them. In Oregon, activists
wrote an initiative allowing death by prescription, but not euthanasia.
Voters approved it in 1994.

Opponents interpret that shift with cynicism.

"It's very clear to anyone who knows a lot about assisted suicide and
euthanasia that the line between assisted suicide and euthanasia is a false
one, drawn for political purpose," said Dr. Greg Hamilton, president of
Physicians for Compassionate Care, a right-to-die opposition group.

A push for legalized euthanasia isn't likely soon.

Compassion in Dying Federation, whose executive director, Barbara Coombs
Lee, helped write Oregon's law, intends to hold the line on keeping lethal
injection illegal.

Compassion in Dying leaders diverge with Humphry and the Hemlock Society.
They believe that protecting patient control over whether and when to end
life is essential to the spirit of the law; autonomy is lost when someone
else can administer a lethal dose.

George Eighmey, executive director of Compassion in Dying of Oregon, says
the Kevorkian case teaches that "there are limits, and we in Oregon have
established those limits and are unwilling to go beyond them."

Eighmey said his organization "has no intention to go beyond what the
present law is. . . . There's going to be no movement on our part to expand
it."

And that Oregon's law may be vulnerable to challenge under the Americans
With Disabilities Act means little if no one will challenge the assisted
suicide law in court.

Activists have no plan to challenge the law, Eighmey said, because they
would not want to risk jeopardizing it.

As for the rest of the country, the debate over assisted suicide continues.
So far this year, at least eight states have introduced measures that would
allow physician-assisted suicide, including a bill now in the California
Assembly. At least six states have introduced legislation that either
criminalizes physician-assisted suicide or increases penalties for doing it.

Gayle Atteberry, executive director of Oregon Right to Life, says she thinks
right-to-die activists won't push to legalize euthanasia until more states
first take the step of legalizing assisted suicide.

But, she said: "The time will come. I will mark that, as sure as I am
breathing and eating and swallowing right now."

You can reach Erin Hoover Barnett at 503-294-5011 or by e-mail at
ehbarnett@news.oregonian.com

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Brownie Mary's Legacy (A staff editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle
eulogizes "Brownie Mary" Rathbun, the grandmotherly volunteer at San
Francisco General Hospital whose marijuana-laced brownies helped launch the
medical-marijuana movement. It isn't always the job of society's critics to
find the exact solutions to painful problems. Raising the issue and marching
forward can be enough. It would be a fitting legacy if a workable solution
could be found to passing out Brownie Mary's goods to those who need it.)

Date: Wed, 14 Apr 1999 09:31:55 -0500
From: "Frank S. World" (compassion23@geocities.com)
Organization: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/7417/
To: DPFCA (dpfca@drugsense.org)
Subject: DPFCA: US CA SFC MMJ EDITORIAL: Brownie Mary's Legacy
Sender: owner-dpfca@drugsense.org
Reply-To: "Frank S. World" (compassion23@geocities.com)
Organization: DrugSense http://www.drugsense.org/dpfca/
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Contact: chronletters@sfgate.com
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Pubdate: Wednesday, April 14, 1999
(c)1999 San Francisco Chronicle

BROWNIE MARY'S LEGACY

THE CRUSADE started small. A grandmotherly volunteer baked marijuana-laced
brownies for patients in the AIDS ward at San Francisco General Hospital.

Mary Jane Rathbun, who died at 77 this week, believed her ``Magically
Delicious'' goods eased nausea and discomfort and to heck with the law. She
was busted three times for her baking, and a San Francisco judge in one
instance sentenced her, fittingly enough, to more community service.

Brownie Mary became a local heroine, a friendly face for a growing movement.
The belief that she and others had in the medical use of marijuana
engendered a political groundswell.

In 1996 California voters approved the notion of allowing the sick to use
marijuana. Since then, the hard details of control and sale have hit legal
obstructions that will take time to work out.

It isn't always the job of society's critics to find the exact solutions to
painful problems. Raising the issue and marching forward can be enough.

For many suffering patients, marijuana -- baked or smoked -- can ease the
pain of illness. It would be a fitting legacy if a workable solution could
be found to passing out Brownie Mary's goods to those who need it.

(c) 1999 San Francisco Chronicle Page A20

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Driving While White (Alexander Cockburn's column in the Anderson Valley
Advertiser, in California, summarizes an article in this month's Esquire
magazine about "Operation Pipeline," by Gary Webb. According to Webb,
Operation Pipeline takes us beyond the basic "driving while black" scenarios
that presume that cops pull over people merely because they are black or
brown and show that millions and millions of federal DEA dollars and training
sessions by the thousand have sent cops out on the roads to look for the
trace signs that spell "drug carrier." Police commands in 48 states now
participate in Pipeline in some fashion.)

Date: Sun, 18 Apr 1999 22:56:41 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US CA: Driving While White
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: combexeast@aol.com
Pubdate: Wed, 14 April 1999
Source: Anderson Valley Advertiser (CA)
Copyright: Anderson Valley Advertiser
Tele: 707-895-3016
Fax: 707-895-3355
Contact: ava@pacific.net
Email: ava@pacific.net
Author: Alexander Cockburn
Note: From, "National Notes" by Alexander Cockburn, Anderson Valley Advertiser

DRIVING WHILE WHITE

Just like the blacks and Hispanics we've been reading about lately I get
pulled over once in a while by the cops and it's clear they think I'm a
possible drug transporter. I make a distinction here between the pretext
stops and the speeding offenses. Drive over 75 miles an hour regularly and
you'll get a ticket once in while. And since everyone in America except
People carrying high explosives drives at some point over 75 mph, everyone
in America, at some point, gets a ticket.

I commute fairly regularly between Petrolia in Humboldt County and Berkeley,
a distance of about 350 miles. The other day I was driving a 1964 Newport
Station wagon north and was astounded suddenly to see a red light go on
behind me, somewhere near Ukiah, and a pissy young CHP (California Highway
Patrol,) officer, on the short side, come around to the passenger door hand
on holster.

By the time a police officer reaches the passenger door any prudent driver
should already have license, registration and proof of insurance held
between finger and thumb, with both hands high on the driving wheel and no
sudden movements, thus hopefully averting what we may term the Diallou
Effect. I did everything wrong, the reason being that the ziplock bag
holding my papers was under the driver's seat and, so contrary, to
procedures just outlined, I was bowed down with my head under the steering
wheel trying to find the bag. The officer stared tensely as I finally
surfaced with the bag and leaned over to try and get the passenger door open.
This is a station wagon that had been sitting in a field for the preceding
six years. All the door locks except for the driver's side, had frozen. There
had been a wood rat nest in the glove compartment, which was why the papers
were under the seat. The passenger door handle broke when, I tried to wrench
it open.

Finally I got the passenger window down. The cop said, as though already
testifying in court, that he had been heading south, rounding a bend and had
seen me come the other way, overtaking a car as I did so, in the outside
lane.

At this point a CHP officer will usually have sized you up, figured you are
no major menace to civilization, not drunk and - computer check on license
pending - maybe not the big catch of the evening. Courteous behavior by the
driver usually yields rewards, with the ticket written up for 72 mph instead
of a reckless driving citation for going over 90. I was polite, peppering my
remarks with "officer."

It got me nowhere.

"I'm going to my car to write the citation," he snapped. His costume was the
blue fatigue jumpsuit that the French riot police used to wear back in the
1960s. He had a particularly large gun. Off he trotted to run my license and
after five minutes came back with a ticket accusing me of driving at 78
miles an hour, a speed which, he remarked, he would have thought "this old
car" incapable. "Did you just eyeball the car and get me on the radar?" I
asked, and he, rather too quickly, said "radar." This seemed to me
intrinsically unlikely, given the circumstances.

The problem here is that the California Highway Patrol has organized things
so that now local counties get a larger cut of the fine. If no one drove
over the limit in California there would be an immediate cash crunch in the
administration of the state. Speeding, is therefore a civic duty.

The fines are getting higher and higher too, with add-ons and extra
penalties and special taxes and fines of one sort and other, so that running
an amber light (not my particular specialty) can see the offender writing
out a check for $150 by the time it's all over.

The pretext stops, as related to the drug war, are of a different order.
Three years ago I was driving a 1972 Imperial two-door hardtop, known to the
cognoscenti at the time as a hardtop convertible, across the country and was
driving along Interstate 90 through Montana.

Not far out of Butte I could see a state trooper behind me. He kept his car
just to my left rear so that my natural reaction was to run a little further
right to the edge of the inside lane. Suddenly his light went on. A trim
28-year old with a slightly less trim 26-year old trainee beside him, the
trooper said that I had driven across the inside white line of the
interstate verge. This was the pretext

If possible, though these days they tell you urgently to stay in your car,
get out and stand at an equal setting with the cop. This I did. He hemmed
and hawed a bit and after a while asked if I was carrying large sums of
money. I laughed and said "I wish." By this time we'd gravitated to the back
end of the car and he was looking hopefully at the trunk. Was I carrying
arms? Absolutely not. Truth be told, I remembered I had half a bottle of gin
in the trunk and wondered whether it was illegal in the state of Montana.

Now, there are a million ways he could have got me to open the trunk, even
without a search warrant, starting with the simple statement that he feared
for his life. But instead he blurted out hopefully, "Are you carrying large
amounts of drugs? "No." Well, though unshaven, wearing dark glasses and
driving a boat, he didn't order me to open up. Maybe it's because I'd told
him I was a writer. He saw a red stain on my fingers and cried out, "Is
that blood?" I said no, it was ink and showed him the fountain pen and that
broke his spirit.

Off I went down the interstate and the same thing happened all over again
half an hour later, with a cop trying to ride me over the inside line,
except that this time I held to the middle of the lane and we drove in that
condition for 30 minutes until he gave up. Last fall, with Barbara Yaley in
a 64 New Yorker, the same thing happened in Montana on Route 2, and we got
stopped and cased by cops in Washington State and in Oregon, each time on
flimsy pretexts.

Here's where we get to Operation Pipeline, as described by Gary Webb in this
month's Esquire. Webb needs no introduction. He's the reporter who wrote up
the CIA-contra drug connection in the San Jose Mercury News, in 1996 and got
hammered by the Agency's pals in the press. When Webb was down, driven out
of his own paper and working for the state of California as an investigator,
Esquire published a fine story describing how he'd been screwed. Now Esquire
has Webb back in harness describing a federal program called Operation Pipeline.

"It's clear enough to me that Pipeline is why I was stopped in Montana,
Washington and Oregon, and why, for every middle class white guy like
myself, a hundred blacks or Hispanics are pulled over. Operation Pipeline
takes us beyond the basic "driving while black" scenarios that presume that
cops pull over people merely because they are black or brown and show that
millions and millions of federal DEA dollars and training sessions by the
thousand have sent cops out on the roads alert for the trace signs that
spell "drug carrier." Webb came across the program while he was working for
the state of California. He says that "police commands in 48 states now
participate in Pipeline in some fashion."

It took shape with a Florida cop called Robert Vogel, a "good cop," in that
he did have a sensitive eye to who on Florida's I-95, might be in line for a
stop and a search. Of course, as Webb makes amusingly and brutally clear,
Vogel is a good old boy whose basic criteria are, stop and hassle the blacks
and the browns, but these basic data were adorned with other criteria, as
formulated by Vogel and refined by other police instructors: - Will a
driver make eye contact with the cop driving in the next lane, a cop,
furthermore, who's eyeballing him? No eye contact increases the chance of
the red light going on. So do hands high on the wheel in the ten-to-two
position, knuckles white and, presumably, an over orderly speed.

- Air fresheners, laundry detergent, fabric softeners. (I always have these
on long trips. You need to wash your clothes, no?)

- Fast food wrappers on the floor. This is evidence of "hard travel." Search
every driver in America.

- Maps with cities circled. Drug drops.

- Tools on the floor. New tires on an old car. High mileage on a new car.

- Single key in the ignition.

- Rental cars. (In my case, a Vermont registration, but California license
and insurance.)

- Signs of fear, unease. Pornography. Young women.

The DEA, Webb writes, took up Vogel's profiling in 1987. It wasn't long
before cops in every state were using the vehicle laws as the pretext. Every
state has them. Any cop can stop you for a thousand different reasons: dirty
license tags, a brake light burned out, almost anything you could dream of.

So you get stopped. There's dialogue. The cop sizes you up. Let Webb tell it
in his own words: "If your indicators are on the high side, however, this is
what will happen. You'll be given your papers back, and then the officer will
hang around and strike up a conversation. What most drivers don't realize is
that at this point, they have magically crossed into a whole new legal
universe. At the moment your license and registration is returned, you are
technically free to leave. In the eye of the law, the traffic stop is over.
Now you and Officer Friendly are just having a "consensual" chat. And your
new friend is free to ask anything.

"From here, it's almost a script.

"You'll be told that the local police have been having a problem with people
ferrying guns and drugs along this part of the highway, but they're doing
their best to stop it. Good, you may say. Glad to hear it. The officer will
nod and say he's happy to see it that way. By the way, you wouldn't happen
to have any guns or drugs in your car, would you?

"Me? you will ask. Oh, no. Of course not.

"The officer will look at you and say, Then you don't mind if I take a
look-see do you?

"If you're like nine out of ten people who get asked this question, you'll
gulp and say, No, no, officer, go right ahead. "You'll be asked to
consent--orally or on paper-- to a search, but don't think too hard or
hesitate to comply, because those are more indicators of drug trafficking,
as is refusing to allow the search. 'If they refuse, the stuffs in the
trunk,' our CHP instructor tells us matter-of-factly. A refusal justifies
calling out the-dogs and letting a drug-sniffing canine take a walk around
your car. If Fido gets a whiff of something, the cop doesn't need your
permission anymore.

"Most drivers consent. This can authorize a complete search of everything,
including your luggage and person. It allows the officer to literally to
take your car apart with an air hammer, which has happened. One of the CHP's
first Pipeline officers Richard Himbarger, was legendary for carrying an
electric screwdriver in his patrol car and removing heater ducts, fenders,
trunk lids, and interior body panels by the side of the road.

"Once they've given consent' our CHP instructor tell us, 'they've dug their
own grave."

This battlefront of the drug war has notoriously reached the courts and the
front pages. The Maryland cops made the biggest mistake in 1992 when they
pulled over and hassled a black family, thus provoking a counterattack by
one of the hassled, Harvard law grad Robert Wilkins, a public defender,
whose suit forced the Maryland cops to admit that out of 732 people detained
and searched in 1995 and 1996, 75 per cent were black and 5 per cent
Hispanic.

The law suits are mounting. Laws are being put at the state and federal
level to inhibit racial profiling. Police forces -- the CHP for example --
are reassessing the way they administer Pipeline. But in terms of police
abuse of powers the situation is getting worse.

In 1996 the US Supreme Court okayed Vogel's method of stopping people for
minor breaches of the vehicle codes in order to check for drugs. Scalia
wrote the opinion, saying it was not the role of the Court to say whether
there were too many trivial traffic laws on the books. Webb reports that
after this case, known as the Whren decision, a CHP instructor told him,
"After Whren, the game was over. We won." Two weeks ago Scalia wrote another
opinion, this time okaying the search of passengers in a car, without a warrant.

Goodbye Fourth Amendment, unless, as the first Court decision suggested, the
pretexts are taken away. There will, I think, be new laws. Stop a thousand
black people and you're bound to snag a cop or two, a lawyer or two and in
the end someone -- and many now have been helped by the ACLU -- will fight
back. Police chiefs and attorney General Janet Reno are expressing concern.
My question: where the hell is the best value-for-money organization in
America, the AAA? It needs heat too, since it should be protecting all its
members. (Remember, the most effective organizations in America are in the
front of the phone book, the AA, the AAA and the AARP, After the AAs and AAAs
people lose heart.)

From, "National Notes"
By, Alexander Cockburn
Anderson Valley Advertiser
Booneville CA

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State Spending Big Bucks To Tell Us What To Do (The San Francisco Examiner
says more than ever before, the government wants to change the way you think.
Public officials are spending billions on new campaigns, even buying
expensive ads on prime-time television. It's called social marketing - part
behavioral science, part propaganda, part Madison Avenue - and it has become
the most popular political antidote to society's many shortfalls. California
alone has spent $220 million on such propaganda since 1997. Federal anti-drug
and anti-tobacco campaigns have $2.45 billion budgeted for advertising over
the next five years. "The bottom line is it's all about politics," said Bob
Belinoff, a sort of social marketing guru from New Mexico who has a Web site
on the subject, www.mkt4change.com. "The people who are putting this stuff on
the air are all politicians elected because of television.")

Date: Sat, 17 Apr 1999 07:55:20 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US CA: State Spending Big Bucks To Tell Us What To Do
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: We, 14 Apr 1999
Source: San Francisco Examiner (CA)
Copyright: 1999 San Francisco Examiner
Contact: letters@examiner.com
Website: http://www.examiner.com/
Forum: http://examiner.com/cgi-bin/WebX

STATE SPENDING BIG BUCKS TO TELL US WHAT TO DO

AD CAMPAIGNS TARGET SEX, DRUGS, TOBACCO

SACRAMENTO - There is a joke among California health officials that someone
should invent a five-sided bus, so they can have more room for advertising.

Using radio, TV and newspaper ads, buses and bus shelters, carefully placed
messages on TV sitcoms, slick brochures, Web sites, toll-free hot lines,
educational materials and highly produced videos, the government is no
longer pushing war bonds and polio shots.

It's selling behavior.

More than ever before, the government wants to change the way you think.
Public officials are spending billions on new campaigns, even buying
expensive ads on prime-time TV. It's called social marketing - part
behavioral science, part propaganda, part Madison Avenue - and it has become
the most popular political antidote to society's many shortfalls.

Don't drink. Don't smoke. Breast-feed your child. Car pool. Buckle your seat
belt. Don't use methamphetamines. If you do, don't dump your meth chemicals
in the woods. Be a good daddy. Be a good mommy. Don't beat your wife. Don't
beat your lesbian lover. Listen to your kids. Talk to your kids. Eat your
vegetables. Don't fight on the playground. Mentor someone. Don't have sex.
If you have sex, use a condom. And for darn sake, RECYCLE!

These are just some of the recent California campaigns, funded by state
taxpayers and a cigarette surcharge, at a cost of about $220 million since
1997. California has spent $634 million in the past decade alone to combat
tobacco use.

Now, an unprecedented amount of money is about to be unleashed in the
largest behavior-changing campaigns in American history. It's all thanks to
the recent mega-settlement with tobacco companies and a Clinton
administration push to "unsell" drug use to children.

Billions in new campaigns

The anti-drug and anti-tobacco campaigns have $2.45 billion budgeted for
advertising over the next five years. Many Madison Avenue firms have created
social marketing divisions to reap the government contracts.

"The kinds of budgets we're looking at today are unheard of. In the past, it
was nothing like this," said Ed Maibach, social marketing director for
Porter Novelli, a pioneer in the field and partner with the White House to
help produce the federal, $195 million-a-year anti-drug campaign.

For the first time, the government is actually purchasing pricey prime-time
TV ad space, when for decades it simply counted on the benevolence of
networks to run the so-called PSAs - public service ads - when they could.
Predictably, most ads have been buried in late night slots.

Few people question the underlying motives for these campaigns. Society
benefits when people drive sober, avoid cigarettes, have safe sex, get a
prostate cancer test and use their seat belt. (In New York City, the
disembodied voices of celebrities like Joan Rivers greet taxi passengers,
reminding them to buckle up.)

But political whims often create problems for these well-intentioned
campaigns. A new administration can bring a new emphasis and different moral
direction, cutting off a program mid-campaign when it needed years to
develop and change entrenched attitudes.

Millions of dollars in anti-smoking TV ads were shelved by former Gov. Pete
Wilson because he didn't want to vilify a legal business, the tobacco
industry, even though experts told him that it was the most effective way to
reach teens.

About the time he decided to run for president in 1995, Wilson also dropped
his Education Now, Babies Later campaign after $5 million had been spent.
Critics accused Wilson of dropping the ads because it was considered "too
liberal," but he said the program wasn't working.

Now Gov. Davis must decide whether to continue another Wilson- inspired
campaign that preaches sexual abstinence, mentoring and good fathering
skills. The cost between 1997 and June 1999: $28.7 million.

One prominent ad in the campaign features a teenage voice, an actress,
talking about having a baby when she was 15. The point is not to preach, but
to explain how having a baby early destroys the most important thing to
teenagers: their social life.

"Yeah, I love my baby," she says, "but I sure wish I waited longer to have
him."

Davis said recently he likes the subjects of the Partnership for Responsible
Parenting, but he may start his own campaign on another topic - reviving a
World War II ethic of public service. Ad agencies and the state Department
of Health Services are waiting to see what happens with the abstinence ads
begun by Wilson.

The number of California teenagers giving birth has declined slowly in the
late-1990s. More women are getting prenatal care, particularly Latinas. But
the state still has one of the highest birth rates in the nation among
teenagers, and these young women are less likely to get prenatal care.

"I think we've been effective already, but this isn't something that can
happen overnight," said Kelly Coplin with Runyon Saltzman & Einhorn, which
helped produce the Partnership ads.

Whether the program stays or goes, one thing is inevitable: Elected
officials will turn to the airwaves and advertising to sell their message.
Davis, for example, recently won legislative approval for a $4million ad
campaign to tell parents to read to their children.

"The bottom line is it's all about politics," said Bob Belinoff, a sort of
social marketing guru from New Mexico who has a Web site on the subject,
www.mkt4change.com. "The people who are putting this stuff on the air are
all politicians elected because of television. So it's only natural that
they would think they could unsell sex with an ad."

There are dozens of tiny campaigns that are so low-budget or so obscure that
most ordinary citizens never hear about them. They seem to come and go
almost on a whim, like a recent U.S. State Department ad reminding people
they need to get a passport before traveling overseas. Who knew?

The California Department of Health Services helped contribute last summer
to a brief, $31,000 BART and Muni advertising campaign with the message: "I
never thought a woman could rape another woman. The anti-violence campaign
prompted a few calls to local agencies, a few news stories.

When it comes to the major campaigns, hundreds of millions of dollars are
targeting one audience: Those under 18. They're the hardest group to
manipulate because they have a sophisticated knowledge of the media and are
more willing to submit to peer pressure.

"We're not trying to get people to buy a product, we're trying to change
attitudes," said Alan Levitt, director of the White House's $1 billion youth
anti-drug campaign.

Part of the effort includes working with Hollywood producers and writers,
particularly those at the Warner Bros. TV network, to get messages inserted
into such teen-popular shows as "Dawson's Creek" and "Buffy the Vampire
Slayer." Since July, at least 32 programs have been involved.

It's total mind war for every 12- and 13-year-old, an age group currently
setting records for drug use. The emphasis is on telling them there are no
social consequences to avoiding drugs - giving them an easy way to just say
no.

"If you look at the forces in a kid's life when it comes to perceptions of
drugs, it's not just ads," said Levitt. "It's programming on television,
it's the Internet, it's music, it's pop culture, it's the
legalization-of-marijuana movement, it's school programs that are mediocre
at best, it's sports figures and rock stars."

Research on the effectiveness of social marketing is slim. A few studies
have shown that people's health habits are the hardest to change because
they are being asked to give up gratification for possible long-term
benefits.

If the social marketing ads are poorly produced, they run the risk of
encouraging the behavior they are trying to stop.

Last week, a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found
that anti-smoking TV ads created by Philip Morris Co. are backfiring. A 17-
state coalition may soon ask the company to hand over $75 million it set
aside for the ads so an independent agency can do them correctly.

For many social marketing experts, changing behavior means getting the
entire community focused on the problem, not just producing TV ads. It also
means changing public policy, for instance, say, getting condoms distributed
or outlawing cigarette vending machines.

"Unless we can mobilize community opinion leaders and gatekeepers, we're not
going to get the enduring change that we want," said Larry Bye, founder of
S.F.- based Communication Sciences Group, which evaluates social marketing
campaigns.

Taking on Big Tobacco

Another cautionary tale on changing public attitudes can be seen in
California's anti-smoking efforts, once the envy of the country. The
pioneering effort started in 1988, when voters approved Proposition 99, a
25-cents-a-pack cigarette tax.

Former Gov. George Deukmejian let the state Department of Health Services
run the program, and they produced a TV ad so effective it is still
remembered in surveys and focus groups.

Called "Industry Spokesman," it featured a tobacco executive talking about
the need to get kids addicted and laughing while he says, "We're not in this
for our health."

But soon after taking office, Wilson began diverting money from the media
campaign to local health programs, calling the mass media push a second-tier
priority. Health officials banned any ads that attacked the industry or
showed tobacco executives telling Congress that nicotine wasn't addictive.

Sandra Smoley, then Wilson's secretary for health and welfare, said it was
"offensive for the government to use taxpayer funds to call a private
industry a liar," according to a recent UC-San Francisco study.

The Department of Health Services under Wilson eventually produced other
anti-smoking ads. Considered equally effective, they included a
groundbreaking campaign that links smoking with impotence, and a disturbing
piece showing an addicted woman smoking through a hole in her throat.

"We've always felt a need to take an aggressive look at the tobacco industry
as a co-conspirator," said Colleen Stevens, chief of the state's tobacco
control media campaign. "Unless we counter the messages they are sending
out, we can't be successful."

Although the percentage of adults smoking in California has dropped
dramatically - and a change in public attitude has led to tough smoke-free
workplace laws - teenage smoking rates have remained steady. The UCSF study
showed direct links between Wilson's anti-tobacco policies and a leveling
off of smoking rates.

This is why anti-smoking crusaders worry about the $1.45 billion set aside
for advertising in the recent $206 billion tobacco settlement. Unlike
Florida, who's hard-hitting ads relentlessly ridicule the tobacco industry,
the omnibus U.S. settlement agreement does not allow direct attacks on the
industry.

Some worry that money will be wasted. The ads need to attack the industry,
critics contend, because teenagers don't like it when authority figures -
like Big Tobacco - appear to be manipulating them. Otherwise, it appears the
government is trying to manipulate them in the ads.

"It's possible to spend huge amounts of money," said Dr. Stanton Glantz, a
noted UC-San Francisco critic of the tobacco industry, "and not accomplish
anything."

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

Reefer Madness in Illinois (The online version of Wired magazine notes
legislation drafted by Bill Mitchell, a Republican state representative,
would make it a Class A misdemeanor to "transmit information by the Internet
about a controlled substance knowing that the information will be used in
furtherance of illegal activity." The bill passed the state house of
representatives last week and was presented to a state senate committee on
Wednesday.)

From: "David Crockett Williams" (gear2000@lightspeed.net)
To: "Drug Policy Foundation list" (dpfca@drugsense.org)
Subject: DPFCA: Reefer Madness in Illinois
Date: Thu, 15 Apr 1999 16:01:31 -0700
Sender: owner-dpfca@drugsense.org
Reply-To: "David Crockett Williams" (gear2000@lightspeed.net)
Organization: DrugSense http://www.drugsense.org/dpfca/

http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/19125.html

Reefer Madness in Illinois
by Craig Bicknell

12:20 p.m. 14.Apr.99.PDT

A bill that would make it a crime to use the Web to transmit information
about marijuana and other drugs is moving through the Illinois legislature.
The legislation passed the House last week and was presented to the Senate
committee on Wednesday.

"It's bringing into the late 20th century existing laws" that apply to
communication about drugs through the mail and other means, said Bill
Mitchell, the Republican representative who drafted the bill.

Activists say it's also ushering in the potential for a serious abuse of the
First Amendment.

"It's a nascent attempt to thwart free speech on the Internet," said Allen
St. Pierre, executive director of the NORML Foundation, an organization that
lobbies to decriminalize marijuana.

"[The legislature] is at the vanguard of nit-wittery."

Not so, said Mitchell. "This would not infringe on First Amendment rights.
It simply covers illegal solicitation of marijuana and other illegal drugs
over the Internet."

In theory, the bill extends the existing Illinois Cannabis Control Act and
Controlled Substances Act, which make it a crime to sell, deliver, or
manufacture illegal drugs.

The problem, free speech advocates say, is that the legislation doesn't
explicitly spell out exactly what would be deemed illegal online.

"It is a Class A misdemeanor to transmit information by the Internet about a
controlled substance knowing that the information will be used in
furtherance of illegal activity," reads the bill's text.

What, precisely, does that mean?

"It's not tightly drafted by any stretch," said Mary Dixon, legislative
director of the American Civil Liberties Union. "As it stands, it has the
potential to stifle free speech."

Would it be illegal for say, an AIDS patient in Illinois to inquire through
email about California's Medical Use of Marijuana Act, asked NORML's St.
Pierre? "What if he's just gathering information to decide if he wants to
move out there?"

It's also unclear how the bill would address illicit drug information
originating from outside the state.

Because it is so vague, analysts don't give the bill much chance of making
it through the Senate.

"I think there will be some thoughtful questions raised" in the Senate, said
Dixon. "[Mitchell] will be hard pressed to move the bill as is."

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

Marijuana Legislation Raises Free-speech Concerns (The Associated Press
version)

Date: Fri, 16 Apr 1999 19:21:14 +0000
To: vignes@monaco.mc
From: Peter Webster (vignes@monaco.mc)
Subject: [] Marijuana Legislation Raises Free-speech Concerns
Pubdate: Wed, 14 Apr 1999
Source: Associated Press
Copyright: 1999 Associated Press
Author: CHRISTOPHER WILLS Associated Press Writer

MARIJUANA LEGISLATION RAISES FREE-SPEECH CONCERNS

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) -- Legislation that would restrict Internet
information about marijuana drew complaints Wednesday from both an
anti-crime group and advocates of legalizing marijuana.

The legislation makes it a misdemeanor to use the Internet to transmit
information about marijuana or other controlled substances ``knowing that
the information will be used in furtherance of illegal activity.''

But the private anti-crime group Illinois State Crime Commission fears the
bill could be used to interfere with legitimate efforts to provide
information about drug problems.

``I don't like gray areas when it comes to the First Amendment because I
don't want to be the first test case,'' said Jerry Elsner, the commission's
executive director.

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws -- or NORML --
also criticized the idea.

``There's no need for this bill,'' said Paul Armentano, the group's director
of publications. ``It seems blatantly unconstitutional. It seems impossible
to enforce.''

The Illinois House passed the measure 114-0, sending it to the state Senate.

The Senate sponsor, Republican Duane Noland of Blue Mound, said the measure
is meant to apply only to people transmitting information they know will be
used for criminal purposes.

But he acknowledged concerns about ``the vagueness of some issues.''

``I need to do a little work on my bill -- which might be a polite way to
say I'm not certain about the future of it,'' Noland said.

Elsner said the measure, as written, could interfere with legitimate
discussions of drugs.

What if an ill person were considering smoking marijuana to relieve pain,
they asked -- would a group break the law by providing information about the
drug's potential medical benefits?

Or what if a drug-awareness group listed the latest trends in drug use as a
service to parents and police? Would the group be prosecuted if a teen-ager
got the idea to experiment?

``We think the intentions are very well-meaning, but we don't think it was
thought out very well,'' Elsner said.

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

Lawmakers: Marijuana Is A Dangerous And Addictive Drug (UPI says the New
Hampshire House of Representatives voted "overwhelmingly" today to reject a
bill sponsored by Tim Robertson of Keene that would have decriminalized
possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.)

Date: Fri, 16 Apr 1999 19:19:11 +0000
To: vignes@monaco.mc
From: Peter Webster (vignes@monaco.mc)
Subject: [] Lawmakers: Marijuana Is A Dangerous And Addictive Drug
Pubdate: Wed, 14 Apr 1999
Source: United Press International
Copyright: 1999 United Press International
Note: Headline by MAP editor

LAWMAKERS TODAY KILLED BILL

(CONCORD, New Hampshire) - House lawmakers today killed a bill
sponsored by a Keene lawmaker that would have made possession of less
than an ounce of marijuana a violation.

Representative Tim Robertson said New Hampshire's prisons are being
filled with non-violent offenders who made the mistake of being caught
with small amounts of marijuana.

But the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee urged the
bill be killed saying marijuana was a dangerous and addictive drug.

The bill was overwhelmingly rejected.

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

U-Conn Star El-Amin Faces A Drug Charge (The Philadelphia Inquirer says
Khalid El-Amin, who last month helped the University of Connecticut win its
first national basketball championship, was arrested in Hartford yesterday
and charged with possession of less than four ounces of marijuana. Star
junior Richard Hamilton was with El-Amin, but was not charged. Members of the
Statewide Narcotics Task Force also impounded the late-model red Cadillac the
players were in.)

Date: Wed, 14 Apr 1999 21:16:14 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US PA: U-Conn Star El-Amin Faces A Drug Charge
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: Wed, 14 Apr 1999
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer (PA)
Copyright: 1999 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.
Contact: Inquirer.Opinion@phillynews.com
Website: http://www.phillynews.com/
Forum: http://interactive.phillynews.com/talk-show/

U-CONN STAR EL-AMIN FACES A DRUG CHARGE

Khalid El-Amin, who last month helped Connecticut win its first
national basketball championship, was arrested yesterday and charged
with possession of marijuana.

The sophomore point guard was picked up on a Hartford street about
5:30 p.m. yesterday and charged with possession of less than four
ounces of marijuana, police said. El-Amin was hustled out of a police
substation in the city's North End shortly after 6 p.m. and taken to
the main station to be booked.

Star junior Richard Hamilton was with El-Amin when he was arrested,
police said. Hamilton, a first-team all-American from Coatesville
High, was not charged. But members of the Statewide Narcotics Task
Force, who made the arrest, impounded the late-model red Cadillac the
players were in. Police would not say to whom the car is registered.

Tim Tolokan, UConn's sports information director, said the school had
no knowledge of the arrest, and no comment.

El-Amin's arrest came one day after Minneapolis North High School in
Minnesota retired his jersey. El-Amin graduated from North in 1997
after leading the Polars to three consecutive state high school
championships.

Duke sophomore Elton Brand will announce at a news conference today
that he will leave college to enter the NBA draft, the Charlotte
Observer reported. He would be the first Duke player to leave early
for the draft.

St. John's announced that sophomore forward Ron Artest will forgo his
college eligibility to enter the NBA draft.

Football

The Dallas Cowboys signed quarterback Troy Aikman to a six-year contract
extension that could keep him with the team through the 2007 season.

Financial terms weren't disclosed.

The extension, which will create salary cap room for the Cowboys,
comes as they signed five-time Pro Bowl center Mark Stepnoski, who
played for the Tennessee Oilers last season.

Aikman had three years left on a contract that was scheduled to pay
him a $6.75 million base salary this year. The extension allows the
Cowboys to move part of his base salary into other years, reducing the
amount that will count against the salary cap this year. That would
make room for other players.

Stepnoski, 32, was a third-round pick of the Cowboys in 1989 out of
the University of Pittsburgh. He was a three-time Pro Bowl selection
with Dallas, then signed with the Oilers as an unrestricted free agent
in 1995. The 6-foot-2, 269-pounder, a free agent after the 1998
season, made the Pro Bowl twice with that franchise.

The Miami Dolphins re-signed restricted free agents Karim
Abdul-Jabbar, Shane Burton and Stanley Pritchett to one-year
contracts, the team said.

Abdul-Jabbar, 24, led the Dolphins with 960 rushing yards and six
touchdowns on 270 attempts. He also caught 21 passes for 102 yards.

Financial terms weren't disclosed.

Maryland must pay former football coach Mark Duffner nearly $89,000, a
Prince George's County, Md., judge ruled. The money was owed under a
secondary contract covering radio and television income.

University lawyers had argued that since Maryland's obligation under
Duffner's coaching contract ended when he became the Cincinnati
Bengals' linebackers coach in February 1997, it no longer had to honor
the secondary contract.

Maryland fired Duffner in 1996 after his fifth season.

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

Ancient Treatment Helps Fight Addictions (The Washington Post examines the
increasing use of acupuncture as a treatment for people dependent on alcohol,
nicotine, opiates and cocaine. The only place in Prince George's County that
offers it, the Underground Railroad, is a private "community center for
wellness and recovery" that opened two months ago in Suitland. Alaine Duncan
of Hyattsville, a licensed acupuncturist, hopes to expand the center into a
state-supported operation, similar to acupuncture detox programs in Baltimore
and Portland, Oregon. The 1997 National Institutes of Health Consensus
Conference on Acupuncture approved it for the treatment of various pains and
ailments, including such things as tennis elbow, vomiting and dental pain.)

Date: Wed, 14 Apr 1999 14:47:37 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US MD: Ancient Treatment Helps Fight Addictions
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Jo-D Harrison Dunbar
Pubdate: Wed, 14 Apr 1999
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Page: M05
Copyright: 1999 The Washington Post Company
Address: 1150 15th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20071
Feedback:
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Author: Susan Saulny, Washington Post Staff Writer

ANCIENT TREATMENT HELPS FIGHT ADDICTIONS

Sleep finally came for Kendra in a narrow, wood-paneled room on Silver Hill
Road in Suitland, where she lay motionless, five tiny needles sticking out
of her right ear.

Desperation, she said, drove her to this place, a small storefront office
next to Strictly Business Beepers and across the street from the
neighborhood bowling alley. Insomnia had her sitting awake in bed most
nights, victim of a sleepy daze that brought her both nightmares and
fantasies about getting high, then feeling low. "Drug dreams" she called them.

Kendra, 34, who asked that her real name not be used, is trying to kick a
10-year-old drug addiction that escalated from an experiment with marijuana
in junior high school to crack cocaine. Recently, she had been feeling
hyperactive and had "the sweats." She had no desire to eat anything. Not a
good situation for someone who has two children depending on her.

In and out of prison and jail, Kendra tried countless treatment programs,
but they failed her. This time, she said, she was willing "to do anything it
takes." So when her parole officer recommended an ancient Chinese healing
method to combat her addiction, she agreed to try it, even though it meant
sticking dozens of needles under her skin.

It's acupuncture for addicts, and to her delight, "it works," Kendra said.
The sweats have stopped. Her appetite has returned. Cravings for drugs have
disappeared. "It's the first time I've had a sense of relief," she said last
week after her third treatment.

Kendra is one of a very few local, recovering drug users who have warmed to
the idea of receiving acupuncture detox at the only place in Prince George's
County that offers it, the Underground Railroad, a private "community center
for wellness and recovery" that opened two months ago in Suitland.

The clinic has 12 clients, but Alaine Duncan of Hyattsville, a licensed
acupuncturist who started the clinic hopes to reach many more people
suffering from addictions as she goes about the community dispelling fears
and myths about acupuncture. She also hopes to expand the center into a
state-supported operation, similar to acupuncture detox programs in
Baltimore and Portland, Ore.

She chose Suitland because it is a state-designated "hot spot" for crime and
drugs and because it is the focus of a community-wide revitalization.

"I see drug use as the kingpin of so many other problems. ... It unglues
families, and makes communities unsafe," Duncan, 46 said. "If we can take
care of drug addiction, we can erase so many other problems. Really, the
'hot spot' and revitalization efforts can't be successful without this."

Exactly how acupuncture works to combat drug addiction, in many ways, is
still a mystery, but it is becoming more popular because of clinical
evidence and patient testimonies that show it to be effective. In general,
acupuncture is based on the theory that energy flows though the human body
on specific pathways connected to specific organs, said Duncan, who studied
the theory and practice at the Traditional Acupuncture Institute in Columbia.

Acupuncture points have been located on the ear that, when pierced by tiny
needles, produce immediate calm and reduce the cravings and symptoms of
withdrawal from alcohol, nicotine, opiate drugs and cocaine.

The needles somehow stimulate the nervous system and tissues that control
involuntary yet fundamental bodily functions, such as circulation and tissue
repair. It operates "on the border of what is tangible and intangible,"
Duncan said. "It's all about balance and harmony."

Duncan concedes that talk about acupuncture can sound a lot like
"hocus-pocus." That's why she is happy that U.S. medical authorities have
recently given it their blessing. The 1997 National Institutes of Health
Consensus Conference on Acupuncture approved it for the treatment of various
pains and ailments, including such things as tennis elbow, vomiting and
dental pain.

Last Wednesday, at the Underground Railroad, acupuncturist Lolita Smith
carefully drew the thin, stainless steel needles from a sterile container
and one by one, placed five of them on strategic spots on Kendra's right
ear. The needles aren't inserted deeply, just under the skin. Kendra hardly
flinched.

"I didn't feel it," she said. "I just mellowed out, totally relaxed."

Her head slowly tilted to her left shoulder and she fell asleep. The needles
were in her ear for about 20 minutes, until she woke up and stretched after
her deep rest. The needles are only used once, then they are thrown away in
a hazardous waste container. There is no blood involved, so the risk of
infection is virtually nil, said Duncan.

Once Kendra woke up, Underground Railroad Board Member Elsie Jacobs, a
community activist who also heads an anti-drug program at Suitland High
School, reminded her about weekly "rap sessions" for patients and said she
could help Kendra train for a new job.

"Call me any time, day or night, if you need to talk," Jacobs said.

The staffers at the Underground Railroad shower their patients with
attention, in part because there are so few. Last Wednesday, Kendra was the
only person who came in for treatment. Appointments aren't necessary, and
fees slide according to a patient's ability to pay.

So far, funding has come from private sources totaling about $105,000, but
Underground Railroad's operating budget is $175,000. Duncan is applying for
grants and soliciting donations.

Duncan hopes one day to secure government support. She says Underground
Railroad has a good relationship with the Prince George's County Department
of Health, but repeated calls for comment from officials there went unanswered.

Duncan, Jacobs and Smith thought about posting fliers, going door-to-door,
having educational workshops to raise money. Anything to get the word out.

Duncan, so passionate about acupuncture, is an ambassador, too. Fifteen
years ago, in a former career as a kidney dialysis technician, Duncan was
sick for almost a decade from a dangerous form of hepatitis C, contracted
from an accidental needle stick. She said nothing helped her until she
turned to acupuncture.

Today, she said, there is not a trace of the disease in her body.

Duncan, a Quaker, named the center the Underground Railroad because of her
community's historical tie to social justice and the real Underground
Railroad that helped slaves escape to freedom more than 100 years ago.
"Today, addiction is a new form of slavery," she said. "We want to be allies
in that struggle, but we're not the heroes."

Jacobs added, "People like Kendra--she's the hero."

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

Petition: Raise Your Voice to Congress Today for HEA Reform (A bulletin from
the Drug Reform Coordination Network asks you to take two short minutes to
raise your voice to Congress asking for a repeal of the provision in the
Higher Education Act of 1998 that delays or denies all federal financial aid
for any drug conviction, no matter how minor - including marijuana
possession.)

Date: Wed, 14 Apr 1999 22:58:16 +0000
To: drc-natl@drcnet.org
From: DRCNet (drcnet@drcnet.org)
Subject: PETITION: Raise Your Voice to Congress Today for HEA Reform
Sender: owner-drc-natl@drcnet.org

Dear friends,

We at the Drug Reform Coordination Network are writing today
to ask you to take two short minutes to raise your voice to
Congress on an issue of great importance. The Higher
Education Act of 1998, signed into law last fall, includes a
provision that delays or denies all federal financial aid
eligibility for any drug conviction, no matter how minor.
Regardless of how you feel about drugs or the drug laws, we
hope you'll agree that cutting off access to educational
opportunity will be counterproductive and detrimental to the
future of tens of thousands of young people and to our
nation as a whole, and is an unnecessary and vindictive
second punishment leveled against people who have already
paid whatever price the criminal justice system demands.

Please take a few moments right now to fill out our online
Higher Education Act Reform Petition, calling on Congress to
enact H.R. 1053, a bill that would repeal the HEA drug
provision and restore judge's discretion. Please visit
http://www.RaiseYourVoice.com to sign the petition and learn
more about the HEA drug provision and how and why students
and a wide range of national organizations, including the
ACLU, NAACP and the United States Students Association, are
organizing to oppose it. Our petition will send a letter
from your e-mail address to YOUR U.S. Representative and two
Senators. Again, the web site is:

http://www.RaiseYourVoice.com

Don't let the war on drugs become a war on education! Sign
the petition, and then take a minute to visit the "Tell
Your Friends" page on RaiseYourVoice or to forward this or
your own note to your friends and to appropriate mailing
lists and forums. Here are some reasons the HEA drug
provision is wrong:

* Judges already have the power to rescind financial aid
eligibility as individual cases warrant. The HEA drug
provision removes that discretion.

* The vast majority of Americans convicted of a drug
offense are convicted of non-violent, low-level possession.

* The HEA drug provision represents a penalty levied only
on the poor and the working class; wealthier students will
not have the doors of college closed to them for want of
financial aid.

* The HEA drug provision will also have a disparate impact
on different races. African Americans, for example, who
comprise 13% of the population and 13% of all drug users,
account for more than 55% of those convicted of drug
charges.

* No other class of offense carries automatic loss of
financial aid eligibility.

* Access to a college education is the surest route to the
mainstream economy and a crime-free life.

For further information on the HEA reform campaign, visit
http://www.RaiseYourVoice.com and click on "Why HEA Reform?"
And visit http://www.u-net.org to learn more about the
student HEA reform campaign and how to get involved! Visit
DRCNet's web site at http://www.drcnet.org for much more
information on the impact of the drug war on society.

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

Canadian House of Commons debates medical marijuana (The Media Awareness
Project provides a URL to a lengthy transcript of today's debate.)

Date: Fri, 16 Apr 1999 19:11:32 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Canada: House of Commons debates Medical Marijuana (link)
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Tip from MAP webmaster Matt Elrod
Pubdate: Wed, 14 April 1999
Source: Debates of the House of Commons of Canada (Hansard)

Dear Readers,

In what should be news of interest to many, the House of Commons is
debating medical marijuana. The debate is a little large for a news item so
we are providing a link:

http://www.parl.gc.ca/cgi-bin/36/pb_chb_hou_deb.pl?e

There are at least two ways to find the actual debate. You can work your
way thru the activity for 14 April to 'LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA FOR HEALTH
AND MEDICAL PURPOSES' or use the search at the top of the web page and
search on marijuana, which will provide not only the 14 April debate, but
much other discussion on other days.

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

Green Light For USA To Operate From Curacao And Aruba (Jane's Defence Weekly
says that last week, Dutch and U.S. government officials reached an agreement
to station U.S. counter-drug forces in the Caribbean at Hato Airfield on the
Dutch Antilles island of Curacao and Reina Beatrix on Aruba following the
closure of U.S. bases in Panama.)

Date: Sat, 17 Apr 1999 04:19:04 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: Green Light For USA To Operate From Curacao And Aruba
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: David Isenberg
Pubdate: Wed, 14 Apr 1999
Source: Jane's Defence Weekly
Copyright: Jane's Information Group Limited 1999
Contact: info@janes.com
Address: 1340 Braddock Place, Suite 300, Alexandria, VA 22314-1651 USA
Fax: 1 703 836 0297 / 1 800 836 029
Website: http://www.janes.com/
Author: Martijn Delaere, JDW Correspondent

GREEN LIGHT FOR USA TO OPERATE FROM CURACAO AND ARUBA

US forces will conduct counter-drug operations in the Caribbean from
Hato Airfield on the Dutch Antilles island of Curacao and Reina
Beatrix on Aruba following the closure of US bases in Panama.

Last week Dutch and US government officials reached an agreement on
stationing US forces on the islands. A formal agreement will be signed
within the next couple of weeks in The Hague.

Royal Netherlands Navy (RNN) sources expect the USA to station some 20
to 25 aircraft on both airfields in the next three years. Besides P-3C
Orion maritime patrol aircraft they could also included E-2 Hawkeyes,
Airborne Warning and Control (AWACS), and KC-135 tankers. These
aircraft are employed through the Joint Interagency Task Force East
(JIATF East) headquartered in Key West, Florida.

The Flag Officer Netherlands Forces Caribbean, Brig Gen Willem Prins,
is one of two tactical commanders for JIATF East. JIATF South will be
moved out of Panama this year and will be merged into JIATF East in
Key West.

The Antilles government supported the move of US forces to the island
since it would boost the local economy and counter the island's
reputation as a safe haven for drug traffickers.

The agreement initially will last only one year during which US
officials will investigate ways to accommodate the increase in air
traffic and population. Gen Prins will function as a liaison between
US officials and the Dutch Antilles government.

Currently, two RNN P-3C Orions are permanently stationed at Hato
Airfield. The Dutch Ministry of Defence intends to augment that force
in the near future with one extra Orion. These aircraft have dual
missions: coast guard operations and counter-drug operations. There is
always one frigate on station in the Caribbean - the West Indies Guard
Ship - equipped with one Lynx helicopter.

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

[End]