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

HJM 10, the Oregon Medical Marijuana Rescheduling Memorial (A list subscriber
says the resolution before the state house of representatives asking Congress
to reschedule marijuana to make it available as medicine will receive a
"tap-tap" hearing this week to keep it alive.)

From: LawBerger@aol.com
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 1999 13:05:33 EDT
Subject: DPFOR: HJM10 (Medical Marijuana Rescheduling Memorial)
To: ocdla-list@pond.net, dpfor@drugsense.org, restore@crrh.org
Sender: owner-dpfor@drugsense.org
Reply-To: dpfor@drugsense.org
Organization: DrugSense http://www.drugsense.org/

HJM 10 (submitted by Rep Bowman, at Voter Power's request) will reportedly
receive a 'tap-tap' hearing this week. The bill will be gavelled in and out,
and a public hearing will be scheduled at a later time.

This formality is required to keep the bill alive, as unless a bill receives
a hearing this week, it cannot be voted on this session.

Lee Berger
Portland

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

U.S. Drug Policy, Problem Need Fix (According to an editorial in the Topeka
Capital-Journal by Gene Smith, Barry McCaffrey, who says he didn't ask for
his job as drug czar, came to Kansas last week to promote the national drug
control strategy, spending nearly an hour with the newspaper's editorial
board. General McCaffrey's attempt to tone down the language of the "war on
drugs" may be too late. The past several years show the already tattered Bill
of Rights may have suffered permanent damage. Maybe the white-haired
ex-general can find a way to both wage the drug war and preserve the
Constitution. "Let us pray that he does. And that, like a physician, he first
does no harm.")

Date: Mon, 19 Apr 1999 09:35:42 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US KS: COLUMN: U.S. Drug Policy, Problem Need Fix
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: compassion23@geocities.com (Frank S. World)
Pubdate: April 19, 1999
Source: Topeka Capital-Journal (KS)
Copyright: 1999 The Topeka Capital-Journal
Contact: letters@cjnetworks.com
Website: http://cjonline.com/
Author: Gene Smith, The Capital-Journal

U.S. DRUG POLICY, PROBLEM NEED FIX

Barry McCaffrey came to Kansas to promote the national drug control
strategy last week, spending nearly an hour with The Topeka
Capital-Journal's editorial board in the process.

McCaffrey was a four-star Army general when he abruptly was named
director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy at
the beginning of President Clinton's second term. When the president
announced the appointment, McCaffrey's expression was that of a man
who had just learned he was the main course at a cannibal banquet.

Absolutely nobody envied him, because despite a couple of bodyguards,
there is more visibility than authority in being drug czar. And, in
the past, much frustration.

McCaffrey claims he doesn't know just why he was picked. He certainly
didn't ask for it, he said, but "I took it because the president asked
me -- and because my dad told me to do it."

On the surface, the appointment would seem a waste of a good officer.
Youngest and most-decorated four-star general in the Army, he twice
earned the Distinguished Service Cross -- the Army's second-highest
award for valor in action -- had been wounded in combat three times,
led the "Hail Mary" dash deep into Iraq that ended the 100-hour Desert
Storm ground campaign in 1991. He is the son of a lieutenant general,
the father of a major and was an obvious choice for Army chief of staff.

Still, the West Pointer's background and 39-year Army career clearly
serve him well here, too.

Placed in command of 150 Washington bureaucrats, McCaffrey set about
analyzing national policy in light of the Army's near-disastrous
experience with drugs in Vietnam and crafting a modified version of
the successful military cure: Education by the boatload, combined with
stiff penalties against transgressors.

The low-key general says confidently that a 10-year program can work
nationally, too, though he is careful to define success as a 3 percent
user level -- half what it is today and well down from the 14.1
percent of 1979.

And he is candid about the costs, pointing out the United States now
has more people (1.8 million) in prison than in the military, a figure
that will grow another 20 percent in the next five years.

"There is no segment of American society that isn't touched,"
McCaffrey said, despite the popular perception drug use is a problem
of young urban minorities. "It's everybody," seven out of 10 of them
still employed, he said.

Refreshingly, McCaffrey immediately directed his staff to lay off the
"war on drugs" language.

He may have been too late. The past several years show the already
tattered Bill of Rights may have suffered permanent damage -- most
recently from the U.S. Supreme Court, which decided 7-2 this month
that a law enforcement officer who stops and searches a driver under
probable cause also may search other occupants of the vehicle without
their consent.

It is merely the latest in a long line of transgressions.

The FBI lied and used Texas National Guard helicopters and armored
personnel carriers in the murderous 1993 assault on David Koresh and
his followers outside Waco.

Navy SEALs and other military specialists are training police SWAT
(Special Weapons and Tactics) teams in several larger cities. Such
teams are now so popular they are almost universal in U.S. police
departments.

The Department of Defense gave 600 selective-fire M-16 assault rifles
to the Los Angeles Police Department last year after complaints the
officers were "outgunned" by a couple of bank robbers carrying legal
AK-47s and wearing body armor. Of course, responding officers armed
themselves with autoloading rifles from a nearby gunshop and killed
both bandits, but ...

Dedicated "street crime" units (as opposed, perhaps, to traffic
control?) routinely use "dynamic entry" -- breaking down doors with
battering rams at 2 a.m. Without warning, of course.

Government files, from tax returns to the new FBI log of gun buyers,
increasingly are being used to snoop in the lives of ordinary citizens.

Police are buying the latest in military technology: fifth- and
sixth-generation night vision devices, heat-seeking scanners,
parabolic listening devices -- often paid for off-budget from "extra"
money seized from people accused (not charged) of drug offenses.

Kansas state authorities use airplanes seized from private owners to
search for evidence of cultivated marijuana, methamphetamine
laboratories (they put out heat) and other narcotics activity. The
Kansas Army National Guard used to do that, until they re-equipped
with newer helicopters that are much more costly to fly. In a pinch
they may do it again, anyway.

Across the nation, sheriff's deputies and police officers are using a
variety of unmarked cars seized from private owners accused of drug
violations. It has become so commonplace no one even remarks on it.

There are other abuses, but these illustrate the trend.

"Recreational" narcotics are unquestionably one of the worst curses in
an evil and bloody century. The need to halt their spread, rebuild
families, educate the young and restore religious faith among our
people is all very clear.

McCaffrey says Kansas is lucky. It has only roughly half the "average"
drug activity of other states -- a judgment that speaks well for
Kansans and Kansas society.

Still, Kansas suffers the same surge in methamphetamines as other
states. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation reports activity is up
sharply, while other figures show marijuana is almost keeping pace.

Marijuana grows wild. Methamphetamines can be made quickly and cheaply
anywhere, though the stuff is volatile, highly explosive and dangerous
to make -- prompting McCaffrey to remark that the producers tend to
come unwrapped within a year.

The result: a dilemma. Deal with drugs or preserve our freedoms.

Maybe this white-haired ex-general can find a way to do both. Let us
pray that he does. And that, like a physician, he first does no harm.

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

Rally Held In Houghton In Support Of Legalization Of Marijuana (WLUC, the NBC
affiliate in Marquette, Michigan, says Michigan Tech University students
associated with the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
held their annual campus rally Sunday.)

Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 16:12:28 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US MI: Rally Held In Houghton In Support Of Legalization Of
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: compassion23@geocities.com (Frank S. World)
Pubdate: Mon, 19 April 1999
Source: MSNBC (WLUC TV, Marquette, MI)
Contact: tv6news@wluctv6.com
Website: http://www.msnbc.com/local/WLUC/

RALLY HELD IN HOUGHTON IN SUPPORT OF LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA

Scores of Michigan Tech University Students and others in the Keweenaw
came together on Sunday in support of marijuana.

Pot, weed or grass no matter what you call it the growing, smoking or
sale of marijuana is illegal. On Sunday, at Michigan Tech University,
students involved with the National Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws or NORML held their annual campus rally to spread the
word about the drug and the benefits they claim it provides.

Specifically including medicinal purposes and the various uses of
hemp, a related byproduct of the marijuana plant.

NORML organizers were hoping for about 400 people at the rally. Some
were certainly interested in the free music and food, while others
clearly showed they had no interest in what was going on.

One may think activists might try to favorably compare marijuana with
alcohol and tobacco, but one NORML organizer said that's not a fair
comparison. He said marijuana is a safer choice.

"Tobacco and alcohol are a lot more damaging as far as medical damage
to the human body then marijuana is. There has never been a reported
fatality due to marijuana use ever," Nick Lauer, NORML member, said.

Lauer added his group has looked into sponsoring legislation to change
the current prohibition against marijuana, but have not made any
formal proposals.

State Representative Mike Prusi said he could envision the legalization
of marijuana, but only if it was heavily regulated by the government.

"Maybe if they can find a way to get marijuana or the active
ingredients in marijuana in the form where it could be prescribed and
regulated. I think that's the route they may want to look at," Prusi
said.

Speaking at an unrelated function the day before, Prusi added it's
unlikely for any reform act to pass in Lansing in the near future.

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

Statement on Marinol (Jon Gettman and High Times magazine officially repond
to the DEA's "confusion" about the relationship between Marinol - pure THC -
which the DEA wants to move to Schedule 3, and marijuana, which the DEA wants
to keep in Schedule 1.)

Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 14:43:26 -0400
To: "DRCTalk Reformers' Forum" (drctalk@drcnet.org)
From: Jon Gettman (Gettman_J@mediasoft.net)
Subject: Statement on Marinol
Sender: owner-drctalk@drcnet.org

Law Offices of
Michael Kennedy
425 Park Avenue
26th Floor
New York City 10022
Telephone (212) 935-4500
Telefax (212) 980-6881

April 19, 1999

STATEMENT OF JON GETTMAN AND HIGH TIMES MAGAZINE ON DEA'S PROPOSED
RECLASSIFICATION OF DRONBINOL (a synthetic form of marijuana, aka Marinol)

We agree with the Institute of Medicine and the DEA that marijuana has an
accepted medical use. We also know that marijuana, and all cannabinoids,
including Marinol, have been misclassified as Schedule I or II drugs by the
DEA.

We disagree with the DEA that Marinol is an adequate medical substitute for
marijuana. Marinol's medical inadequacies render it inappropriate for
individual classification without a reclassification of all cannabinoids.
Marinol is an inadequate medical substitute for marijuana because it (the pill)
must be taken orally, takes longer to take effect, the dosage cannot be
controlled and those who need the medical benefits the most cannot ingest or
swallow a pill due to nausea and vomiting.

Marijuana is better medicine than Marinol because, when smoked, mariuana can
take effect immediately, its dosage can be easily controlled and there is no
need for oral ingestion.

We disagree with the DEA as to the relative abuse potentials of marijuana and
Marinol. To be properly included in Schedule I a substance must have a high
potential for abuse. The lower the potential for abuse the lower the
classification of the substance. The DEA originally classified marijuana as
Schedule I based exclusively on the unproven assumption that marijuana "MAY"
have a high potential for abuse. The scientific evidence is now clear that
marijuana and its related cannabinoids do NOT have a high potential for abuse
and, therefore, do not belong in Schedule I.

A public hearing is required to insure that all cannabinoids, including
Marijuana and Marinol, are properly reclassified.

***

Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 14:41:39 -0400
To: "DRCTalk Reformers' Forum" (drctalk@drcnet.org)
From: Jon Gettman (Gettman_J@mediasoft.net)
Subject: Letter to DEA: Clarification of Comments on Marinol
Sender: owner-drctalk@drcnet.org

Law Offices of
Michael Kennedy
425 Park Avenue
26th Floor
New York City 10022
Telephone (212) 935-4500
Telefax (212) 980-6881

April 19, 1999

U.S. Department of Justice
Drug Enforcement Administration
Attn: John H. King
Deputy Assistant Administrator
Office of Diversion Control
Washington D.C. 20537

Re: Gettman/Trans High Corporation petition

Dear Mr. King:

In response to your letter of 31 March 1999, Petitioners desier to make their
position with respect to Marinol (dronabinol) quite clear. Petitioners
persist in their demand for a public hearing on the proposed reclassification
of Marinol from Schedule II to Schedule III.

Petitioners see no 'inconsistency" between their position in the petition and
the request for a public hearing on Marinol. Petitioners do perceive an
inconsistency in the DEA's proposed treatment of Marinol and its historical
treatment of other canabinoids. Petitioners seek both an equitable and
expeditious processing of their Petition and a public hearing on the
reclassification of Marinol.

The current proposal to reschedule dronabinol contradicts provisions of federal
law that require that Schedule III drugs have a lower potential for abuse than
Schedule I and II drugs. The July 1995 Petition includes all cannabinoids
because precedent has established that the abuse potentials of marijuana, THC,
dronabinol, and nabilone are similar. Dronabinol and THC are the same
chemical; it is DEA's proposed rescheduling of dronabinol while retaining
marijuana and THC in schedule 1 that appears inconsistent, rather than our
request for a hearing on the issue.

DEA notes that it has been urged to act expeditiously. The present proposal
for rescheduling dronabinol is flawed; many of these flaws could be remedied by
proceedings on rulemaking based on the July 1995 petition. Given the issues
raised in the December 1998 comments the appropriate remedy would be for DEA to
delay further action on dronabinol until such time that HHS completes its
review of the July 1995 petition enabling rulemaking on the status of
marijuana, THC, dronabinol, and nabilone.

The DEA has long had a unique interpretation of the CSA when it comes to
marijuana and cannabinoid drugs. It claims that accepted medical use is the
only relevant criteria, and it has spent 27 years avoiding judicial review of
its decision to maintain marijuana in Schedule 1 with no evidence or finding
that marijuana has a high potential for abuse, relative to other controlled
substances.

The DEA now seeks to apply their flawed legal doctrine to the rescheduling of
dronabinol, a substance identical to THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.
On scientific grounds there is strong argument and precedent that dronabinol
should be a Schedule IV substance. Hearings are required to investigate, among
other issues, how DEA and HHS have determined that dronabinol does not meet
schedule IV criteria, and how its abuse potential compares with other scheduled
and non-cannabinoid drugs. On legal grounds DEA and HHS have made it
impossible to reschedule dronabinol because of their prior mis-handling of the
scheduling of marijuana and other cannabinoids. To reschedule dronabinol the
government has the burden of proof to establish that dronabinol has a lower
potential for abuse than Schedule I and II substances. And this burden appears
impossible to meet as long as marijuana and THC are thus classified.

It seems important and necessary to remind you of some critical facts.

a) Dronabinol and THC are the same chemical.

b) DHHS has previously determined that dronabinol and THC have the same
potential for abuse.

c) DHHS has previously based scheduling of cannabinoids on the premise
that they have the same potential for abuse.

d) Oral consumption of dronabinol produces an additional psychoactive
substance not obtained by smoking marijuana.

e) Blood plasma levels of dronabinol peak 2-4 hours after oral dosing.

f) Dronabinol's effects have a delayed onset that is frustrating to many
patients who require instant relief, thus making it difficult for patients to
adjust the dose.

g) Dronabinol lacks additional cannabinoids available in marijuana that
mediate the side-effects of THC.

h) Many individuals with experience with both dronabinol and marijuana
believe that dronabinol has a higher potential for abuse than marijuana because
of issues (d), (e), and (f).

i) Diversion under Schedule II regulation is not an indication of possible
diversion under Schedule III regulations.

j) Dronabinol affects the same neural receptor system as THC and
marijuana, and cessation of heavy use produces the same withdrawal symptoms.

k) Nabilone, a product of the Eli Lily Company, was denied schedule III
classification by DHHS because it would have been inconsistent with
dronabinol's current Schedule II classification.

l) DEA has decided that the abuse potential of THC is so high that minute
quantities present in industrial hemp render its potential US cultivation a
threat to public health.

m) The proposed rule implies that synthetic substances have a lower abuse
potential than their natural counterparts.

n) Rescheduling synthetic dronabinol to schedule III will create a
precedent that will provide its manufacturer an unfair advantage in research on
the derivation of industrial raw materials from cannabis.

o) While the Court of Appeals has provided for DEA to conduct preliminary
determinations regarding treaty obligations, this determination is supposed to
involve the calling of expert witnesses, and it is not allowed to influence the
scope of the requested DHHS review. A hearing is required to establish a
sufficient factual record to allow judicial review.

As to the proposed rule for dronabinol, the treaty determination conducted by
DEA took place at the same time as their preliminary review of the
Gettman/Trans High Corporation petition to remove THC from Schedule I and II.

The proposed rule states that dronabinol can be rescheduled under current US
treaty obligations as long as THC remains in Schedules I or II. DEA's
determination suggests that action on the Unimed petition for dronabinol and
the Gettman/Trans High Corporation petition are mutually exclusive, and that
the DEA intends to facilitate the scheduling of dronabinol at the expense of
consideration of the scheduling of THC. Nor does the treaty determination, as
reported in the Federal Register, address the federal government's obligations
should THC be removed from Schedules I and II, a likely outcome in pending
proceedings for which the DEA has already conceded that "significant grounds"
exist for such removal.

DEA has noted that the pharmacological and behavioral effects of dronabinol are
comparable to those of THC, marijuana, and other cannabinoids. In other cases
this has been used as a reason why similar substances have similar abuse
potentials. As in the case of 4-bromo-2,5-DMPEA and similar Schedule 1
hallucinogenics, dronabinol and other active cannabinoids are structurally
similar, activate the same receptor system in the brain and produce similar
psychoactive effects. In the scheduling of 4-bromo these factors supporting a
determination that these drugs have a similar potential for abuse. Similar
arguments were used in the scheduling of Remifentanil, Sibutramine, and
Modafinil.

The DEA acknowledges that "there are few scientific studies that directly
evaluate the pharmacological and behavioral effects of the product Marinol to
indicate that there are differences in its abuse liability compared to oral
THC." (63 F.R. 559751)

This statement obscures the fact that Marinol is oral THC, and that dronabinol,
the active ingredient in Marinol is the exact same chemical molecule as THC.
The only way natural THC is available is in marijuana, and the DEA's
acknolwedgement above reveals that there are few studies to support DEA's
position that there is a difference between the abuse potentials of dronbinol,
THC, marijuana, and nabilone. DEA must clarify its basis for giving such
weight to empirical anecdotal data in its determination given DEA's
acknowledgement of paltry scientific support for its position.

DEA must also provide scientific documentation for its claims that differences
in the onset of effects and route of administration are relevant to the
assessment of abuse potential in general and to the assessments dronabinol's
abuse potential in particular. In that rapid onset of effects associated with
smoked marijuana is considered a benefit by patients, DEA should dexplain how
its hypothesized benefits of a lower abuse potential for dronabinol compensate
for this loss of medical efficacy.

DEA states that "although excessive use of Marinol may result in the
development of psychological dependence, there has been no evidence of such
use." If the anecdotal evidence that dronabinol does not produce dependence is
so strong then why hasn't DEA propose its removal from the schedules as they
recommended for Fenfluramine in 1997 (62 F.R. 24620)? What is missing from the
DEA justification for the rescheduling for dronabinol is a comparison of its
abuse potential with that of other, non-cannbinoid, scheduled substances. For
example, how does the abuse potential of dronabinol compare to other Schedule
III substances, Schedule IV substances, and Schedule V substances?

On a legal, factual and procedural basis these issues require judicial review
preceded by administrative hearings for the purpose of establishing an
appropriate and complete factual record to assist the potential review by the
US Court of Appeals.

In conclusion, we await your advice on the public hearing schedule for the
proposed Marinol reclassification and an expected date on when you will hear
back from the DHHS on its evaluation and scheduling recommendation on our
Petition.

Sincerely,

(signed)

Michael Kennedy
For Petitioners

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

It's Time to Open the Doors of Our Prisons (An op-ed in Newsweek by Rufus
King, a Washington lawyer and perhaps the longest-active drug-policy-reformer
in the United States, explains how freeing first-time drug offenders now
would make economic sense.)

From: bc616@scn.org
To: hemp-talk@hemp.net
Subject: HT: ART: It's Time to Open the Doors of Our Prisons
(ineffectual drug laws a...)
Date: Fri, 4 Jun 99 16:49:40 +0000
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net
Source: Newsweek, April 19, 1999 p10(1).
Website: http://www.newsweek.com
Author: Rufus King
Copyright 1999 Newsweek Inc.

It's Time to Open the Doors of Our Prisons (ineffectual drug laws and
penalties for offenders cost US too much)

Freeing first-time offenders is the compassionate answer. It also makes good
economic sense.

Americans, once so kind-hearted, have become lusty punishers. Since President
Nixon's "war" on crime, the public has become increasingly intolerant of
wrongdoers, a group with no lobbyists or spin doctors to look out for them.
In the late 1960s, America, like most of the rest of the world, forsook
capital punishment. Since reviving it almost a decade later, we have executed
more than 500 people. Now governors brag about the number of death warrants
they sign.

The U.S. prison population, 1.2 million not counting short-term jail inmates,
is the largest in the Western world. A number of states are spending more on
prisons than on schools, and along with the federal government are turning
some of their prisoners over to private custody - so that skimping on
accommodations directly boosts stockholders' dividends. Lawmakers trample one
another to pose as tough crimefighters, and mandatory minimums force judges
to hand out long sentences, sometimes life, automatically upon conviction.
Parole programs have atrophied.

The situation is aggravated by America's hysteria over drugs.
Self-administered opiates (heroin and morphine) and cocaine together cause
fewer than 8,500 deaths per year - compared with tobacco, 430,000, and
alcohol, 100,000 dead, plus millions drunk in the gutter or otherwise
incapacitated. I don't think marijuana has ever killed anyone.

Yet the White House campaign to be "drug free" not only costs billions, but
concentrates on prohibition and punishment at the expense of notably cheaper
and more effective treatment. The elaborate U.S. campaign to compel drug-crop
growers abroad to give up their livelihoods is one of the most fatuous
national efforts ever undertaken. Imagine Turks and Andeans trying to keep
Yankee farmers from growing their truly deadly tobacco!

Nearly all the nation's prison systems are overcrowded, many critically. In
state and federal prisons, more than half of all inmates are serving their
time for nonviolent offenses. Some 30 percent are first offenders.
African-Americans are a grossly disproportionate 49 percent. Drug-law
convictions account for almost one fourth, and nearly one third of these are
for simple possession. Genuine hardship cases abound, with stunning sentences
for minor wrongs, the separation of parents and young children and a wide
disproportion among convictions for identical offenses.

After working for many years in the development of criminal law, I've become
increasingly concerned about our clogged prison system. My proposal to
relieve the problem is simple: systematic use of pardon and commutation
powers to clear out worthy first-offense long-termers to make room for
serious felons. It should stir compassion and appeal to common sense. But
there is another consideration that Americans may understand even better:
costs. At an estimated $20,000 per year to hold each prisoner, we are
spending more than $25 billion annually for simple, nonproductive warehousing
of convicted offenders.

Altogether, our annual layout for corrections is more than $35 billion,
curving steadily upward even as crime rates drop. We are developing a
powerful "prison-industrial complex," a national growth industry exploiting
today's hostility toward wrongdoers. There is scant evidence that long prison
terms alone are causing the drop. Most observers credit other factors such as
progress in reducing poverty, the improved economy, tighter gun laws and the
increasing average age of the population. Criminologists agree that
about-to-be lawbreakers don't look up penalties in the law books; they plan,
if at all, on how to avoid being caught.

Every system for administering justice has, since ancient times, included
some provision for tempering punishment, usually a power to pardon and
commute sentences, vested in the executive. Royal pardons were well known to
most of our European forebears. American presidents draw the power directly
from the Constitution, and every state governor enjoys some such prerogative.
Historically, the power has been freely, often liberally used, sometimes to
grant amnesty to entire classes of offenders.

So I urge an immediate review of all sentences now being served in order to
identify nonviolent first offenders held for disproportionately long terms,
to release those who have paid their debts to society and are good risks, and
to make room for menacing recidivists and other serious offenders.

There would inevitably be a few Willie Hortons, but the process might be
designed to include further screening in each case. Release should be
strictly conditioned on good behavior and other factors where appropriate.

The president could initiate such a program simply by directive, or Congress
could set up a new authority for it. And any governor or state legislature
could give it a try. I only need to convince enough economy-minded people
that some of the nation's prison-budget billions could be better spent
elsewhere. Perhaps I've convinced you.

King is a Washington lawyer with a lifelong interest in criminal justice.

Photo: 'I'm urging an immediate review of all sentences, to release those
people who have paid their debt'

Copyright 1999 Newsweek Inc. All rights reserved. Any reuse, distribution or
alteration without express written permission of Newsweek is prohibited.

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

Jamaican Spring Break: Sun, Sea and Sex (The Salt Lake Tribune says about
20,000 students from northeastern U.S. universities are expected to spend
their spring vacations at Jamaica's three main resort towns by the end of
April - up from 13,000 last year - lured by the promise of hot sunshine, cool
seas, all-night parties and plenty of booze. For some, an additional
attraction is "ganja," or marijuana.)

Date: Mon, 19 Apr 1999 06:21:45 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Jamaica: Jamaican Spring Break: Sun, Sea and Sex
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: Mon, 19 Apr 1999
Source: Salt Lake Tribune (UT)
Copyright: 1999, The Salt Lake Tribune
Contact: letters@sltrib.com
Website: http://utahonline.sltrib.com/
Forum: http://utahonline.sltrib.com/tribtalk/

JAMAICAN SPRING BREAK: SUN, SEA AND SEX

NEGRIL, Jamaica -- In the thousands they descend on Jamaica each spring, the
latest haven for stressed and tired students seeking laid-back days on a
sunny beach and high-voltage parties by night.

"We had friends who've come here before and told us the weather was great,
the beaches were great, and that's how we've found it," enthuses 20-year-old
Alex Tone of Indiana University at Fort Wayne. "Friendly people and really
great girls!"

Some 20,000 students from northeastern U.S. universities are expected to
visit Jamaica's three main resort towns by the end of April -- up from
13,000 last year -- lured by the promise of hot sunshine, cool seas,
all-night parties and plenty of booze.

For some, an additional attraction is "ganja," the marijuana weed which
flourishes here.

Although smoking marijuana is illegal in Jamaica, it's readily available.
The country is home to the Rastafarian religion that considers smoking the
weed the equivalent of a sacrament. One reporter almost ran down a vendor
prancing around in the middle of a main road, hawking a corn-cob size bundle
of the drug.

The students arrive after the stress of mid-term exams -- but they soon
throw that off.

Days are spent hanging out on beaches, reading, suntanning or enjoying water
sports. There are contests from the traditional wet T-shirt contests and
he-man competitions to body-painting.

Nights generally mean binges in bars with names like The Pickled Parrot, De
Buss, Chances on the Beach and Margueritaville.

Not all students use the break to indulge hedonistic impulses. Thirty-one
from Arkansas State University went to Jamaica to work in a medical clinic
for the poor.

"I get the satisfaction in knowing that I'm doing what I'm supposed to be
doing," says one, Nathalia Dawson.

Negril was a fishing village until hippies and flower children made it
popular in the early 1970s.

Students who come today find the finest stretch of beach on an island
renowned for them - 7 miles of palm-tree lined white sands between a
turquoise sea and low-lying hotels and private villas not allowed to be
higher than the tallest palm tree.

In the years since hostile Florida residents turned on rowdy spring
breakers - with some hanging out banners urging them to get out of town -
the revelers have gravitated to foreign climes where they are welcomed.

Negril is now second only to Cancun as a spring destination for the students.

Arreton Bell, owner of the 23-room La Cage, says sometimes his guests are
unhappy that their rooms aren't more like the Ritz.

"You have to sit them down and rap with them and explain this is a Third
World country," says Bell, a father of two boys who says he doubles as a
guidance counselor and friend. "We say no drugs on the property, but we
don't impose too many rules, because the more rules you introduce the more
problems you get."

Patrick Brady, a youthful 43-year-old who owns the Risky Business bar, says
he's made millions of Jamaican dollars (hundreds of thousands of dollars)
over the years from spring break.

"Negril's an easy sell," he says. "Sand, sea, alcohol, sex, food, beach,
good times . . ."

As the town's hotels get sold out, late-bookers have taken to staying in
Montego Bay, which has livlier night life, then commuting to Negril to spend
the day at the beach. Several then share the $60 cost of a taxi for the
two-hour trip covering 90 kilometers (55 miles).

"I think if I had gone through college and graduated without coming here,
I'd have missed a real true spring break," says Jacqueline Sabol, a
21-year-old studying for finals in Liberal Arts at the District of
Columbia's George Washington College.

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

[End]