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

Philip Morris says it won't pay state's share in tobacco damages (According
to the Associated Press, the cigarette trafficker says it won't pay Oregon's
share of $32 million in damages assessed against it by an Oregon jury,
arguing the multistate settlement with tobacco companies engineered by state
attorneys general excuses Philip Morris from paying punitive damages to the
state. Under Oregon law, 60 percent of punitive damage awards is appropriated
to a state fund for crime victim compensation, meaning Oregon would get $19.2
million if the $32 million punitive-damages award withstands the tobacco
company's appeal.)

Newshawk: Portland NORML (http://www.pdxnorml.org/)
Pubdate: Wed, May 19 1999
Source: The Associated Press (OR)
Copyright: 1999 The Associated Press
Website: http://www.oregonlive.com/
Forum: http://forums.oregonlive.com/
Author: no byline

Philip Morris says it won't pay state's share in tobacco damages

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Oregon could be gearing up for a showdown with
tobacco giant Philip Morris, which says it won't pay the state's share of
$32 million in damages slapped against the company by an Oregon court.

At issue is the fate of $19.2 million, part of a $32-million
punitive-damages award granted to the family of Jesse D. Williams, a
Portland resident and longtime Marlboro smoker who died of lung cancer.

A Multnomah County Circuit Court jury awarded the family $79.5 million in
punitive damages against Philip Morris on March 30, deciding that the
cigarette-maker had lied for decades about the link between smoking and cancer.

On Thursday, Judge Anna J. Brown reduced the amount to $32 million, ruling
that anything larger would violate constitutional guarantees against
excessive punishment.

Under Oregon law, 60 percent of punitive damage awards goes to a state fund
for crime victim compensation, meaning that Oregon would be a pull down
$19.2 million, if the award withstands the tobacco company's planned appeal.

Now, the tobacco company is challenging the notion that it has to pay any
punitive damages to the state. In a letter to Oregon Attorney General Hardy
Myers, company attorneys wrote that a multistate settlement against tobacco
companies excuses Philip Morris from paying the punitive damages to the state.

In November, Oregon joined a nationwide settlement orchestrated by state
attorneys general in which the tobacco industry agreed to pay the costs of
medical treatment for smokers whose health benefits are covered by the
Medicaid system, health insurance for low-income people.

Under that agreement, Oregon is to receive $2.1 billion during the first 25
years and then about $81 million a year in perpetuity.

Still, the state says it will stand tough against Philip Morris' refusal to
pay in the Williams' lawsuit.

"We will be litigating that," said Kristen Grainger, executive assistant to
Myers. "We could possibly use the same court and judge. We're now evaluating
our options."

Neither Grainger nor Philip Morris attorney Gregory Little would comment in
detail about the looming legal battle, but Little did say that the company
was pleased that Brown reduced the award last week.

"We believe that the reduction was certainly a step in the right direction,
and we're pleased that the punitive damages was dramatically reduced . . .
and ultimately should be set aside in its entirety," he said.

The Williams family, on the other hand, hopes the entire judgment will be
reinstated on appeal. In a statement written on behalf of the family,
attorneys said they "emphatically disagree with the court's conclusion that
the award was in any way excessive."

After the trial, two jurors said they were angered by Philip Morris
documents that showed the company knew about the disease-causing properties
of cigarettes but continually denied the link between cancer and smoking.

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

Oregon in pursuit of share of award (The Oregonian version)

Newshawk: Portland NORML (http://www.pdxnorml.org/)
Pubdate: Wed, May 19, 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: Patrick O'Neill, the Oregonian

Oregon in pursuit of share of award

* Philip Morris says it will fight any attempt to make it pay the state part
of a $32 million punitive damages judgment

Oregon justice officials say a huge punitive damage award against Philip
Morris means the giant tobacco company will owe the state millions of
dollars if the award survives planned appeals. But Philip Morris officials
say they aren't going to pay.

The two are headed for a legal showdown over the fate of $19.2 million, part
of a $32-million punitive-damages award granted to the family of Jessie D.
Williams, a Portland resident and longtime Marlboro smoker who died of lung
cancer.

On March 30, a Multnomah County Circuit Court jury awarded the family $79.5
million in punitive damages against Philip Morris, deciding that the
cigarette-maker had lied for decades about the link between smoking and
cancer. On Thursday, Judge Anna J. Brown reduced the punitive damage amount
to $32 million, ruling that the larger amount would violate constitutional
guarantees against excessive punishment.

Oregon would be a big winner if the punitive damages award withstands the
tobacco company's planned appeals. Under Oregon law, 60 percent of punitive
damage awards goes to a state fund for crime victim compensation. If Brown's
$32 million award stands, the state's share would be $19.2 million.

But the tobacco company is challenging the notion that it has to pay any
punitive damages to the state.

In a letter to Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers, company attorneys wrote
that a multistate settlement of Medicaid claims against tobacco companies
excuses Philip Morris from paying the punitive damages to the state.

In November, Oregon joined a nationwide settlement orchestrated by state
attorneys general under which the tobacco industry agreed to pay the costs
of medical treatment for smokers whose health benefits are covered by the
Medicaid system. Medicaid provides health insurance for low-income people.

Under that agreement, Oregon is to receive $2.l billion during the first 25
years and then about $81 million a year in perpetuity.

Kristen Grainger, executive assistant to Myers, said Monday that the state
disagrees with Philip Morris' refusal to pay in the Williams lawsuit.

"I think that state will take exception to that," Grainger said. "We will be
litigating that."

Grainger said the state probably would file a motion with the court to make
the tobacco company pay.

"We could possibly use the same court and judge," she said. "We're now
evaluating our options. I don't know what the timeline will be, but I expect
it (the filing) will be imminent."

Neither Grainger nor Gergory Little, Philip Morris associate general
counsel, would comment in detail about the looming legal battle.

Little did say, however, that the company was pleased that Brown reduced the
award last week.

"We believe that the reduction was certainly a step in the right direction,
and we're pleased that the punitive damages was dramatically reduced . . .
and ultimately should be set aside in its entirety," he said.

The Williams family, on the other hand, hopes the entire judgment will be
reinstated on appeal.

In a statement written on behalf of the family, attorneys said they
"emphatically disagree with the court's conclusion that the award was in any
way excessive."

According to the statement, the family "intends to continue this struggle to
hold Philip Morris fully accountable for its calculated scheme of misconduct
and the widespread harm it caused -- as the jury intended. We expect the
jury's full verdict to be reinstated on appeal."

After the trial two jurors said they were angered by Philip Morris documents
that showed the company knew about the disease-causing properties of
cigarettes but continually denied the link between cancer and smoking.

A hearing is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. June 18 before Brown on a Philip Morris
motion for a new trial and a motion to set aside the verdict.

Both motions normally are filed by parties contemplating an appeal. The
motion for a new trial stops the judicial clock and gives Philip Morris more
time to prepare an appeal.

You can reach Patrick O'Neill at 503-221-8233 or by e-mail at
poneill@news.oregonian.com. The fax number is 503-294-4150. The regular
mailing address is 1320 S.W. Broadway, Portland, OR 97201.

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

Kitzhaber rolls out tobacco money for schools (The Oregonian says Oregon Gov.
John Kitzhaber on Tuesday signaled that he is willing to drop his
tax-increase proposals and instead dig deeper into the state's tobacco
settlement money to boost school spending.)

Newshawk: Portland NORML (http://www.pdxnorml.org/)
Pubdate: Wed, May 19, 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: Steve Suo, the Oregonian

Kitzhaber rolls out tobacco money for schools

* The governor, perhaps inching closer to a budget deal, indicates he might
abandon tax-increase plans

SALEM -- Call it a budge on the budget.

In a sign of incremental movement away from a budget deadlock with
Republican leaders, Gov. John Kitzhaber on Tuesday signaled that he is
willing to drop his tax-increase proposals and instead dig deeper into the
state's tobacco settlement money to boost school spending.

In a 45-minute briefing with reporters, Kitzhaber, a Democrat, laid out a
plan that would raise $4.95 billion for schools, about $225 million more
than Republican leaders have said the state can afford. The plan would pay
for an expanded higher education budget and take steps to control how fast
future school budgets grow -- two key Republican priorities -- without tax
increases.

Among other measures, Kitzhaber would spend $130 million in tobacco money
during the next two years, up from his previous request for $70 million. An
additional $150 million would come from settlement-backed bonds.

The proposal represented the first time Kitzhaber has discussed such a broad
use of debt financing -- a concept Republican leaders endorsed in their
budget. And it was a formal acknowledgment that Kitzhaber is more intent on
a budget deal than higher taxes.

Although he said he would prefer raising $150 million by canceling personal
income tax "kicker" refunds, Kitzhaber said he is willing to use debt instead.

"If the leadership is adamant about betting on the come and not using these
resources in the kicker, then we are forced to borrow money from the future
children," Kitzhaber said. "I don't think that's good policy. I'm willing to
do it if that's what it takes to get out of here."

Still, Kitzhaber's announcement did not turn many heads among Republican
lawmakers who control the Legislature.

"He went to another pot of money to grow government," said House Speaker
Lynn Snodgrass, R-Damascus. "If that pot of money wasn't there, he'd still
be on the tax thing."

Snodgrass reiterated the Republican position that the tobacco settlement,
part of an expected $2.4 billion from the industry during the next 25 years,
should be placed in trust. The federal government later might claim some of
it, Snodgrass said, and using it to pay for state programs would increase
the probability that taxes will rise in the future.

Senate President Brady Adams, R-Grants Pass, wasn't as quick to reject
Kitzhaber's proposals. Although he said he would be uncomfortable using the
tobacco proceeds, he has not strongly opposed the concept.

Kitzhaber's latest proposals for using tobacco money come after a series of
other small windfalls to state government that he and Republican leaders are
considering for schools. They include:

* A higher-than-expected property tax forecast that will offset state
spending by $31 million.

* A plan to increase spending from the Common School Fund by $40 million.

* Unexpected federal aid worth $104 million.

But a number of obstacles have blocked a budget agreement.

Among them, Adams and others have said recently: Kitzhaber's budget would
exceed the state's statutory spending limit, enacted two decades ago and
pegged to growth in personal income.

Kitzhaber responded to that criticism for the first time Tuesday, calling
the limit "an anachronism" because voter-approved property tax cuts have
forced state government to expand its role in financing schools.

"In my view, the spending limit has no relevance in this debate," he said,
"unless you are looking for ways to avoid adequately funding schools."

Beyond that, however, conservative Republicans in the House and Senate say
Kitzhaber has offered no assurances about how the new school money would be
spent.

Senate Majority Leader Gene Derfler, R-Salem, and Sen. Neil Bryant, R-Bend,
have been pushing a bill that would offer school districts the option to
bargain with teachers for a legislatively approved salary cap.

On Wednesday, Kitzhaber made a counteroffer.

His proposed legislation, still in draft form, would tell individual
districts what to expect in long-term state financing growth. The idea is to
signal districts that if they negotiate higher-than-expected teacher pay
increases, budget chief Jon Yunker said, they can't count on additional
state support to sustain the increase.

Adams said Republicans are willing to negotiate with Kitzhaber, as long as
the two sides could come up with a bill that had a binding effect on school
spending.

"If you don't come up with something that has some teeth in it," Adams said,
"it's just going to be words on paper."

You can reach Steve Suo at 503-221-8234 or by e-mail at
stevesuo@news.oregonian.com.

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

New pill can help pare off pounds (The Oregonian celebrates the arrival of
orlistat, marketed under the brand name Xenical by Hoffmann-LaRoche Inc.
Expect to see the ads soon. The weight-loss pill approved last month by
the Food and Drug Administration is said to reduce the fat absorbed by the
body by about one-third. Except after one year, only 57 percent of Xenical
patients had lost a meager 5 percent of their body weight, compared to 31
percent of patients given a placebo. Designed for people who are very
overweight, the drug is available only by prescription, and is meant to be
used along with a physician-guided weight-management program that includes
sensible diet and exercise. Several glaring omissions include the attrition
rate - how many people were able to take the drug for as long as a year - how
long the medicine was tested on human subjects, and whether any longitudinal
follow-up monitoring of patients is being carried out to safeguard consumers
by assessing or uncovering long-term side effects statistically.)

Newshawk: Portland NORML (http://www.pdxnorml.org/)
Pubdate: Wed, May 19, 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: Oz Hopkins Koglin, the Oregonian

New pill can help pare off pounds

* The new remedy works by reducing the fat absorbed by the gut by about
one-third

The long-awaited, fat-blocking, weight-loss pill is finally at a pharmacy
near you. Now for the small print: The drug, orlistat, marketed under the
brand name Xenical (pronounced ZEN-i-cal) is probably not an easy answer to
your dieting prayers.

First of all, you don't just pop a pill and shed pounds. Xenical, available
only by prescription, is meant to be used along with a physician-guided
weight-management program that includes a sensible diet and exercise.

Second, it's a fat blocker, but that doesn't mean you get to eat all the fat
you'd like. Xenical works by blocking absorption of one-third of the fat you
eat each day. That means a patient taking the drug who eats 60 grams of fat
a day may absorb only 40 grams of fat, and the other 20 grams will be
excreted through the digestive tract.

And third: Some doctors may end up prescribing Xenical for the moderately
overweight, but the pill was actually designed for obese patients with a
body mass index, or BMI, (see inside chart) of more than 30. That would be,
for example, someone 5-feet-5-inches tall, weighing 180 pounds. It is also
designed for people with a BMI of more than 27 who have obesity-related
medical problems such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes.

Last month, the Food and Drug Administration gave Hoffmann-LaRoche Inc.,
makers of Xenical, the goahead to market it in the United States, and it is
just now arriving at pharmacies, though it has been available through other
countries via the Internet for some time. It has been used by more than a
million people in 17 countries including Argentina, Brazil, Denmark France,
Germany and Mexico, according to the company.

The drug represents a new approach to fighting fat.

"There has never been anything like this," said Dr. Roger Illingworth, an
Oregon Health Sciences University professor of medicine who was on the
advisory panel to the FDA that recommended approval of Xenical. He is in
OHSU's division of endocrinology, diabetes and nutrition.

Xenical is not at all like the infamous and wildly popular weight-loss drug
fen-phen, the combination of fenfluramine and phentermine. That drug worked
in the brain to suppress appetite, but fenfluramine was voluntarily
withdrawn from the market after studies found it might cause a serious heart
valve condition.

Instead, Xenical acts in the intestines to block fat absorption. The drug
prevents enzymes in the gastrointestinal track from breaking down the fat
you eat into smaller molecules that can be absorbed by the body.

The recommended dose of Xenical is one capsule with each main meal that
includes fat. And since the drug reduces the absorption of some fat-soluble
vitamins and beta carotene, patients should take a multivitamin containing
A, D, E, and K vitamins and beta carotene to offset the loss, Illingworth said.

He cautioned that the more fat patients eat, the harder Xenical will be on
their gastrointestinal tract.

"This is only going to block fat absorption by 30 percent, so if you are on
a high fat diet this is going to give you more rapid bowel movements or
perhaps diarrhea," Illingworth said.

Because the drug is acting to reduce fat absorption, patients shouldn't
expect to lose 10 pounds in a month with the drug alone. "So my philosophy
will be to encourage people to use it as an adjunct to lifestyle changes and
gradual weight loss at a reasonable rate -- a couple of pounds a month," he
said.

In the national studies leading to FDA approval, 2,800 patients had Xenical
and 1,400 patients were on a placebo, or dummy pill. All patients were asked
to eat a well-balanced, reduced-calorie diet containing up to 30 percent of
calories from fat, which is consistent with the healthy eating plan
recommended by the American Heart Association.

All patients decreased their daily caloric intake by 20 percent, or by 600
calories per day. Of the patients who completed one year of treatment, 57
percent of the Xenical patients and 31 percent of the placebo-treated
patients lost at least 5 percent of their body weight.

Specific data from trials involving 7,000 patients worldwide shows:

* Almost three times as many patients taking Xenical in addition to a
reduced-calorie diet vs. reduced-calorie diet alone lost more than 10
percent of their body weight.

* Twice as many on Xenical lost at least 5 percent body weight.

* Patients taking Xenical lost 50 percent more weight than those on
reduced-calorie diet alone.

Dr. James Tarro, of Tualatin, who had 36 patients in the U.S. trials, says
Xenical works best when accompanied by a big dose of tender, loving care.

Weight creeps back

In the first year of his two-year trial, patients who took Xenical, kept to
a reduced-calorie diet and checked in with him once a month, lost 5 percent
to 10 percent of their body weight. But in the second year when patients on
the drug were placed on a slightly increased calorie maintenance diet and
asked to check in every two months their weight began to creep up.

"People need a lot of help, a lot of back patting," Tarro said. "We don't
know a whole lot about weight loss other than the fact that minimum calories
produce weight loss, however we can accomplish that."

Now that Xenical is on the market, Tarro intends to incorporate it into his
internal medicine practice, although he says he will not prescribe it for
moderately overweight people who want to drop 10 pounds before their class
reunion. Weight problems require more than a new drug, and obesity should be
treated as a chronic disease, he said.

For that reason, it's important to have a therapy obese patients can take
for a long period of time, Tarro said. "And I think that Xenical is probably
better than anything we have going right now, probably one of the safest for
long-term treatments," he said.

You can reach Oz Hopkins Koglin at 503-221-8376 or by e-mail at
ozkoglin@news.Oregonian.com

***

[sidebar:]

How it works, what it costs

Q: What is Xenical?

A: Xenical is the trade name for orlistat, a drug recently approved by the
Food and Drug Administration for use by prescription that blocks the
absorption of dietary fat.

Q: Who is Xenica/ intended for?

A: It is meant for obese patients, not those who are only mildly overweight.

Q: How does it work?

A: Unlike other anti-obesity agents that work in the brain to suppress
appetite, it works in the gastrointestinal tract to block one-third of the
fat a person eats in a day.

Q: What does it cost?

A: About $4 or $5 a day. Most health insurance companies are unlikely to pay
for it.

Q: How much weight can I expect to lose with the drug?

A: Weight loss is gradual and varies from person to person, but in studies
Xenical patients experienced an average weight loss ranging from 5 to 10
percent of their body weight over one year.

Q: What are the side effects of Xenical?

A: Gastrointestinal symptoms, including oily spotting, flatulence with
discharge, fecal urgency, fatty or oily stool, oily evacuation, increased
defecation and fecal incontinence are usually mild and transient. Eating a
diet with only 30 percent of calories from fat may minimize these symptoms.
Xenical has also been shown to reduce the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins
A, D, E and K as well as beta-carotene.

For more information about Xenical ask your doctor or call the drug company
at 800-746-5456.

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

Medical Marijuana Researcher to Speak at Forum (A news release from the
Lindesmith Center provides more details about a free public lecture scheduled
May 25 in San Francisco featuring Dr. Donald Abrams, the only physician in
the United States currently allowed to carry out a clinical trial using
medical marijuana.)

From: ekomp@earthlink.net
Date: Wed, 19 May 1999 13:19:07 -0700
To: canorml@igc.apc.org
Subject: DPFCA: Abrams announcement
Cc: dpfca@drugsense.org
Sender: owner-dpfca@drugsense.org
Organization: DrugSense http://www.drugsense.org/dpfca/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Ellen Komp, The Lindesmith Center
415-921-4987; ekomp@earthlink.net

Medical Marijuana Researcher to Speak at Forum

Prominent AIDS researcher Donald Abrams, M.D., the only U.S. researcher
currently conducting a clinical trial on medical marijuana, will speak on
"Medical Marijuana: Tribulations and Trials" at a forum sponsored by The
Lindesmith Center West from 5-7 PM on May 25 at the San Francisco Medical
Society (1409 Sutter at Franklin).

Dr. Abrams received a grant from the NIH in October 1997 to conduct clinical
trials on marijuana's use by patients with HIV infection. He is sure to present
a lively and informative discussion of the state of research into marijuana for
medicine.

The forum will include a review of the medical uses of marijuana, a review
of the different pharmacokinetics between oral and smoked THC, issues of
concern for patients with HIV, and an outline of the tortuous route Dr. Abrams
was required to take to gain approval for his study.

Dr. Abrams is chairman and principal investigator of the Community
Consortium, an association of Bay Area HIV Health Care Providers, one of the
pioneer community-based clinical trials groups, established in 1985. He is
the Assistant Director of the AIDS Program at San Francisco General Hospital
and a professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of California, San
Francisco. Physicians, health care and treatment providers, patients, and
members of the public are invited to the free forum. Please phone the
Lindesmith Center at 415-921-4987 or email tlc-west@ix.netcom.com to reserve
a space.

The Lindesmith Center-West is a policy and research institute and public
interest law center dedicated to broadening debate on drug policy and related
issues. The Center's agenda focuses on issues and strategies that have been
overlooked or ignored in public discussions and government-funded research on
drug policy.

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

Alaska Legislature Tightens Medical-Marijuana Law (Reuters says the
Republican-controlled legislature on Tuesday passed a bill to limit the
initiative approved last November by nearly 60 percent of voters. The
legislation will require patients to register with the state, limit
possession to one ounce and six plants of marijuana, and require patients to
make periodic visits to their doctors' offices. A spokesman for Democratic
Gov. Tony Knowles indicates he'll sign the bill.)

Date: Wed, 19 May 1999 18:28:21 -0400
From: David (hansi@lancnews.infi.net)
To: NTL (NTList@fornits.com)
Subject: [ntlist] Alaska Legislature Tightens Medical-Marijuana Law
Reply-To: hansi@lancnews.infi.net (David)

Alaska Legislature Tightens Medical-Marijuana Law

12:06 a.m. May 19, 1999 Eastern

By Yereth Rosen

JUNEAU, Alaska (Reuters) - Six months after Alaska voters
approved a ballot initiative that granted residents of the state the
right to use marijuana to ease the symptoms of grave illness, the
state legislature Tuesday passed legislation limiting that right.

Under the bill passed by the Republican-controlled legislature,
patients must register with state authorities to use the drug for
medical purposes.

The initiative, put on the statewide ballot by citizen petition,
allowed the state to maintain a registry of medical marijuana
users but did not force patients to join it.

The bill passed Tuesday also would limit qualified patients and
health-care providers to possession of one ounce and six plants
of marijuana, with no exceptions, and it would require that
patients make periodic visits to doctors' offices to renew their
right to use medical marijuana.

Neither provision was in the initiative approved by nearly 60
percent of Alaska voters.

Gov. Tony Knowles, a Democrat, supports the bill, said
spokesman Bob King.

Under Alaska's constitution, lawmakers are forbidden from
rescinding ballot initiatives for two years, but they may amend
laws passed by initiative.

State Sen. Loren Leman, the Anchorage Republican who
sponsored the bill, said it was needed to prevent recreational
marijuana users from exploiting the voter-approved initiative.

That argument was echoed by state Rep. Ramona Barnes, an
Anchorage Republican who noted Monday that possession and
use of small amounts of marijuana was legal in the state until
1990 and said the ballot initiative was a veiled attempt to return
Alaska to those conditions.

``Anyone that believes that medical-marijuana initiative didn't
put us back to where we were in the mid-'80s, when marijuana
was wide open in this state and (caused) the destruction of the
minds and bodies of young people, think again,'' Barnes said.

Leman said compromises made in committees will protect
patients' rights while ensuring that police have the tools to
distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate marijuana use.

But opponents of the bill said it imposed too many changes on a
law that had won popular support from voters.

``It would be presumptuous for me to vote to change it, since
the initiative got more votes than I did,'' said state Sen. Kim
Elton, a Juneau Democrat.

He and others criticized the registry, which they said could
endanger patient confidentiality, and other elements they said
unfairly burdened people suffering from serious illness.


Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
Republication and redistribution of Reuters content is expressly
prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters
shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for
any actions taken in reliance thereon.

***

Non-Testers List (NTList) news list.
A consumer guide to anti-drug testing companies.
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/6443/ntl.html To Join or Leave
NTList send "join ntlist" or "leave ntlist" in the TEXT area (NOT the
subject area) to: ntlist-request@fornits.com Don't forget "ntlist" in
your command. For Help, just send "help". List owner:
thehemperor@webtv.net (JR Irvin)

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

Tax On Illegal Drugs Is Unconstitutional (According to the Salt Lake Tribune,
U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball has nullified Utah's Illegal Drug Stamp Tax
Act. Judge Kimball ruled the law amounts to a criminal punishment, entitling
defendants to the same constitutional protections provided in a criminal
prosecution, yet it does not provide for those rights. A 1997 state supreme
court decision already limited use of the tax, and officials had all but
abandoned it.)

Date: Wed, 19 May 1999 13:17:53 -0500
From: "Frank S. World" 
Reply-To: compassion23@geocities.com
Organization: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/7417/
To: "DRCTalk Reformers' Forum" (drctalk@drcnet.org)
Subject: US UT: Tax On Illegal Drugs Is Unconstitutional
Sender: owner-drctalk@drcnet.org
Source: Salt Lake Tribune (UT)
Website http://utahonline.sltrib.com/
Email letters@sltrib.com
Forum http://utahonline.sltrib.com/tribtalk/
Wednesday, May 19, 1999

TAX ON ILLEGAL DRUGS IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL

BY SHEILA R. MCCANN THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

A Utah federal judge has declared the state's Illegal Drug Stamp Tax Act
unconstitutional, ruling it does not safeguard the rights of Utahns accused
of failing to pay steep taxes on cocaine, marijuana and LSD.

A 1997 Utah Supreme Court decision had already limited the use of the tax,
and state tax officials had all but abandoned it.

The new decision by U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball halts all use of the
law, although it has not been decided whether the state will appeal, said
Assistant Atty. Gen. Dan Larsen.

The act required Utahns who possessed the drugs to buy tax stamps for their
stash. The state charged $3.50 in taxes for each gram of marijuana, $200 per
gram of cocaine and $2,000 for 50 doses of LSD. When dealers were caught
with drugs and without the stamps, the law was used to seize cash and
property to satisfy the tax.

But the Utah Supreme Court decided the tax act could not be used if separate
criminal charges were filed. Adding the tax to charges amounted to double
jeopardy, or illegal double punishment for the same crime, the justices
said.

Kimball ruled in a challenge brought by Mindy K. and Jeffery C. Dunn, now of
Salt Lake City, who were arrested by the FBI in March 1994. The criminal
case against Mindy Dunn was dismissed, but Jeffery Dunn pleaded guilty to
selling cocaine.

The Utah Tax Commission assessed $4,287,960 in drug stamp taxes against the
Dunns, based on evidence they possessed 11,000 grams of cocaine between 1992
and 1994, Kimball's decision said.

Double jeopardy protections did not apply to Jeffery Dunn because he was not
facing two cases from the same level of government, Larsen explained. The
state pursued the tax case while the federal government filed the criminal
case.

Money and belongings were seized from the Dunns to satisfy the tax,
including their Park City home, its furniture, and inventory from Mindy
Dunn's Animal Crackers toy store. The home was sold at a loss, the Dunns
contend. A 1995 inventory said the state held $340,000 in cash belonging to
the Dunns, plus personal possessions.

The Dunns sued in federal court, arguing the drug tax amounts to a criminal
punishment -- which entitled them to the same constitutional protections
provided in a criminal prosecution.

Kimball agreed, finding Utahns facing tax assessments under the act have the
right to have the case against them proved beyond a reasonable doubt; the
right to an attorney; the right to trial by jury; and the right against
self-incrimination.

However, the act does not provide those rights. Under the law, taxes and
penalties are assumed to be valid, Kimball observed. Taxpayers have the
burden to show the taxes were incorrectly assessed. Hearings are held by
administrative law judges, and final decisions are entered by the tax
commissioners.

Kimball ordered the state to halt the tax proceedings against the Dunns and
return their money and property. The tax commission believes the Dunns' case
was the final drug stamp tax case pending, said spokeswoman Janice Perry
Gully.

But the judge dismissed the Dunns' claims that their rights were violated
during searches and seizures. The couple has endured financial hardship
during the five years their assets have been held, and they may appeal that
portion of Kimball's ruling, said their attorney, Rod Snow.

"We think Judge Kimball is an excellent judge, but we will have to seriously
consider with our clients the dismissal of the claims for violations of our
clients' constitutional rights," Snow said.

Jeffrey Dunn has not yet been sentenced in the criminal case.

(c) Copyright 1999, The Salt Lake Tribune

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

Illinois House Votes To Study Hemp For Agricultural Purposes (The Associated
Press says legislators voted 78-35 Wednesday for HR 168, a resolution to form
a task force that would study the re-establishment of an industrial hemp
industry.)

Date: Thu, 20 May 1999 01:47:18 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US IL: WIRE: Illinois House Votes
To Study Hemp For Agricultural Purposes
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Frank S. World
Pubdate: Wed, 19 May 1999
Source: Associated Press
Copyright: 1999 Associated Press

ILLINOIS HOUSE VOTES TO STUDY HEMP FOR AGRICULTURAL PURPOSES

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) -- The Illinois House voted Wednesday to study
turning hemp -- a close cousin of marijuana -- into a new source of cash for
farmers, but don't expect that to lead to legal joints any time soon.

Legalizing industrial hemp is a far cry from legalizing marijuana,
supporters said.

``The tragedy would be if we couldn't overcome that stereotype and the
Illinois economy would go into the tank,'' said Rep. Judy Erwin, D-Chicago.

House members voted 78-35 to form a task force to study planting and
harvesting of industrial hemp. North Dakota is the only state that allows it
now.

Rep. Ron Lawfer, R-Freeport, said Canadian farmers raising hemp can earn a
profit of about $283 per acre -- between four and five times what the
average Illinois farmer makes.

Erwin and Lawfer hope the task force will develop standards to ensure the
hemp contains little THC, the ingredient that gives marijuana its
mind-altering qualities.

Industrial hemp has over 25,000 known uses including clothing, medicines,
paints and paper.

Some lawmakers expressed concerns that the industrial hemp would be used to
make marijuana, but supporters say that's not the case.

E. J. Pagel, Rockford director for the National Organization for Reform of
Marijuana Laws, said marijuana and industrial hemp cannot be confused for
one another and hemp cannot be used as a drug.

The resolution is HR168.

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

The Supermax Solution (The Village Voice describes Upstate Correctional
Facility, New York's 70th prison and first "supermax" institution. The
$180 million maximum-security cage, designed to hold almost 5,000 inmates,
will open this summer in Malone, population 14,297, located 15 miles south of
the Canadian border. Career options are so few in the North Country that
prison guard has become a popular choice. What could be worse than spending
23 hours a day in a cell? Try spending 23 hours a day in a cell with somebody
else. Rehabilitation is beside the point. The aim is to cut costs - to house
as many prisoners as cheaply as possible. Locking together pairs of criminals
with a history of breaking prison rules may save dollars, but it has an
ominous history. Pelican Bay State Prison in California is eliminating the
practice because 10 prisoners have killed their cellmates in the last few
years.)

Date: Wed, 19 May 1999 17:10:34 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US CA: The Supermax Solution
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Nathan Riley
Pubdate: Wed, 19 May 1999
Source: Village Voice (NY)
Copyright: 1999 VV Publishing Corporation
Contact: editor@villagevoice.com
Address: 36 Cooper Square, New York, NY 10003
Feedback: http://www.villagevoice.com/aboutus/contact.shtml
Website: http://www.villagevoice.com/
Author: Jennifer Gonnerman

THE SUPERMAX SOLUTION

Malone, New York - The homes for the town's newest residents arrived
last summer atop 14-wheel tractor trailers. Each tiny, prefab dwelling
came furnished with two beds, a mirror over the sink, and
steel-reinforced walls. With a photo and caption, the Malone Telegram
heralded these new homes: "prison cell blocks arrive." Evidently,
prison building qualifies as good news in Malone, New York (Pop.
14,297), where concrete cages are not merely houses for criminals. To
locals, they are also an answer to chronic underemployment, a magnet
for luring new retail stores, and the best hope of recapturing
malone's boom years.

Each morning around 6:30 a.m., the rumble of construction trucks
interrupts the quiet of this rural town 15 miles south of the Canadian
border. Pickup trucks, bulldozers, and dump trucks careen down Route
37, turn onto Bare Hill Road, and thunder past a dog pound before
stopping inside a vast clearing on the edge of Malone. Here, hundreds
of men in hard hats are hurrying to finish construction of Upstate
Correctional Facility, which will be the state's most punitive
penitentiary when it opens this summer.

Upstate is the first New York prison built specifically to house the
state's most dangerous inmates, making it a "supermax" in prison
lingo. States across the country have erected supermaxes in recent
years, but New York's will be among the harshest. What could be worse
than spending 23 hours a day in a cell? Try spending 23 hours a day
in a cell with somebody else. The most harrowing aspect of life
inside Upstate is that confinement will not be solitary.

Severe overcrowding led New York's prison officials to begin
double-celling inmates in 1995. Men shared a bunk bed at night but
were out of their rooms during the day. This practice started with the
least violent inmates, and it never applied to prisoners who had
defied prison rules - and been sentenced to 23 hours a day in their
cells. Until now.

Upstate will enforce a new form of punishment by locking pairs of men
together, all day, in 14-by-8-1/2-foot cells. At this two-story
prison, 1500 inmates will be crammed together, watched over by 800
surveillance cameras and 370 guards. Rehabilitation is beside the
point. The aim is to cut costs-to house as many prisoners as cheaply
as possible without triggering a riot or an avalanche of lawsuits.
Locking together pairs of criminals with a history of breaking prison
rules may save dollars, but this policy has an ominous history.
Pelican Bay State Prison in California is in the midst of eliminating
this practice because 10 prisoners have killed their cellmates in the
last few years.

Upstate's experiment in human containment requires the participation
of Malone residents - without the town's leaders' encouraging its
construction, and without men and women willing to work inside, the
prison would not exist. Malone's citizens do not decide prison
policy, nor do they, for the most part, commit the crimes that have
packed the state's prisons. But they are the ones who will enforce
Upstate's rules. In exchange, Malone will get what it craves: a boost
for its ailing economy. The prison will create 510 well-paid jobs
(including guards, administrators, and clerical workers). Townspeople
hope it will also end the exodus of young people moving away in
search of work.

Even so, this $180 million prison is spreading unease throughout
Malone. Some residents wonder exactly what will go on inside the
high-security facility. Others are simply anxious that the prison
will change their town for the worse. There are already two medium-
security prisons in Malone, hidden in the same strip of forest where
the new supermax is being built. And some residents are beginning to
believe that the prisons' impact extends far beyond the lives of
those who work inside.

Prisons seep into a town's psyche in ways that are nearly impossible
to measure - shrinking civic pride, straining guards' marriages,
feeding anxieties about race and crime. The opening of New York's
70th prison will transform Malone into one of the nation's largest
prison towns. Soon, Malone will have an inmate population of almost
5000 - far fewer than the 17,740 prisoners now in New York City's 14
jails, but a huge number considering that inmates will make up more
than one-third of Malone's total population.

Inside its concrete walls, Upstate will reflect the nation's
criminal-justice priorities at the end of this century: high-tech
cost-saving over inmate rehabilitation. Beyond its motion-detecting
fences, however, the townspeople's trepidation about their new
supermax echoes the nation's growing doubts about its prison-building
craze- a multibillion-dollar experiment in crime control that
persists even as crime rates drop, that has imprisoned nearly 2
million people while permanently altering the landscape, economy, and
spirit of hundreds of America's towns. Todd Fitzgerald leans forward
to shut off his tractor's engine and ponders how a supermax came to
be built on his winding dirt road. "I don't think we're stupid up
here and don't care," says the 37-year-old farmer, taking a break
from plowing a field where he will soon plant alfalfa. "But there's
low population density, and you don't get the opposition when you're
building something controversial."

Todd did not want a maximum-security facility built just a patch of
woods away from his house. But he did not fight it. Some of his
neighbors signed a petition protesting the prison, but most people
did nothing. "Up here," Todd says, "people think if the state wants
to do something, they're really going to do it."

Decades of factory layoffs and farm closings have decimated the
economy in Malone, leaving behind a town hungry for work and for
hope. When Malone's residents tell a stranger about their hometown,
they rummage through the recesses of their minds, dusting off
decades-old memories of what once gave them paychecks and pride.
Workers hurriedly sewing and gluing slippers at Tru-Stitch Footwear,
a fixture in Malone since 1938. The gangster Dutch Schultz and his
mobster pals buying beers for locals at the majestic Flanagan Hotel
on Main Street during the 1930s. The sprawling farm that everyone says
brought in the largest spinach crop east of the Mississippi River.

Today, that 1200-acre farm is no more. Slippers sewn by the town's
residents still appear in the pages of J. Crew and L.L. Bean
catalogues, but over the last decade Tru-Stitch has shrunk its
workforce from more than 1100 to 350. And a couple of years ago, a
fire tore through the Flanagan Hotel. "It was like the heart and
soul got ripped out of Malone," says one lifelong resident. Actually,
the spirit of Malone had been taking a beating for years as its
economy, like those of towns across New York's North Country, began
to sputter.

Over the last two decades, prisons have become the North Country's
largest growth industry, the panacea for its towns' economic woes.
Since 1980, New York has built eight prisons in this part of the
state, bringing the total to nine. Hoping to bolster its economy,
Malone lobbied for a medium-security prison in the mid 1980s. It
ended up with two: Franklin Correctional Facility in 1986 and Bare
Hill Correctional Facility in 1988. Before long, the state increased
the size of both prisons, from 750 beds to more than 1700 today.
Initially, the state's new supermax was slated for Tupper Lake, a
town 60 miles away, in the heart of Adirondack Park. But when
environmental groups protested, the state again turned to Malone.

"We couldn't care less where the prison is built as long as we get the
beds we need," says James Flateau, spokesperson for the state
Department of Correctional Services. "Nobody will make space
available in New York City for a prison, and Governor Carey opened a
prison in Long Island and got run out of town for it. So the only
place left is upstate. Critics like to say we arrest people in the
city and send them to prison so we can create jobs in upstate New
York. That simply is not true."

Shipping thousands of prisoners to the North Country does accomplish
what most people want from a prison - it keeps the criminals far
away. Upstate could not be much farther from New York City - home to
two-thirds of the state's prisoners - and still be within the state's
borders. Meanwhile, the outskirts of Malone are starting to resemble
a full-fledged penal colony. The new supermax is so close to Bare
Hill Correctional Facility that an Upstate inmate staring out the
back of his cell will have a tough time figuring out where his
prison ends and the next one begins.

Most Malone residents, of course, will never see this view. But those
who have stepped inside an Upstate cell do not forget the
experience. Todd McAleese, a 27-year-old plumber, has been working on
the prison for almost a year but cannot imagine surviving in one of
its cells. "I'd be dead in a week," says Todd as he nurses an
after-work beer at the Pines, a pub popular with the prison's
construction workers. "I would not eat or drink and I'd be the
biggest prick. I'd spit on every guard who walked by. I'd be doing
swan dives off the bed." Todd pauses, then takes a sip. "But this
isn't a regular prison," he says. "This is the worst of the worst."

Joyce T. Tavernier, Malone's Republican mayor, visibly shudders when
she recalls peering inside an Upstate cell while touring the
facility with fellow members of the prison's local advisory board.
"We give our cats more room than that," says the 65-year-old mayor,
while seated in her modest office next to a wooden pole with an
American flag. "We all thought we wouldn't want to be in one, but I
think everyone realized this is the way it had to be," she says.
"We're not talking about people who spit on the sidewalk or cashed a
check that bounced."

When Todd Fitzgerald, the farmer, spotted a tractor trailer carrying
cell blocks parked along his road, he drove closer and poked his head
inside. "You'd have to be a total animal to be locked up like that,"
says Todd, who owns 25 acres and 35 cows. "I think it would drive me
nuts. But we don't know who's going to occupy the cell. He probably
deserves that or worse."

Few Malone residents will wind up in these prefab pens. And neither
will you, unless you go to prison and refuse to obey the rules -
unless you slice another prisoner, cut a hole in the fence, or stash
cocaine in your cell. If you do misbehave, prison officials will slap
you with time in the "box" or the "hole" - a "special housing unit"
(SHU) set apart from the general inmate population. On any given day,
close to 4000 of the state's 71,000 prisoners are doing time in
special housing units at facilities across New York. They can be in
there for a few weeks or many months. Or they could be looking at 17
years, as Luis Agosto was after he slammed a lieutenant in the head
with a baseball bat during a 1997 riot at Mohawk Correctional Facility.

As the state's SHU population has grown, prison officials have run out
of places to house these inmates. To solve this dilemma, the state
converted one of its maximum-security prisons, Southport Correctional
Facility, into a supermax in 1991. Putting hundreds of troublesome
inmates together in one prison helps keep the peace at other state
facilities. "It's a major management tool," says Flateau. But a few
months after Southport's transformation, angry inmates staged a riot
to protest conditions, taking three guards hostage for 26 1/2 hours.

Southport is still a supermax, but the demand for places to send
rebellious prisoners persists. So over the last year, prison
officials have added 100 SHU cells to eight prisons around the
state, and have begun housing two men in each. The rest of the
solution lies with Upstate. There, officials insist, the problems
will be manageable. "When you get large groups of inmates - that's
when you have problems," says Thomas Ricks, Upstate's superintendent.
"But here there's never going to be any large groups of inmates.
They're not as likely to get in trouble because they're only dealing
with their cell mate."

If you get sentenced to at least 75 days in the box, you could find
yourself on a bus headed to Upstate. The only way you can avoid this
fate is if prison officials decide you are mentally ill or a "known
homosexual." (In the state prison system, sex is banned and a sort
of "don't ask, don't tell" policy prevails; you are a "known homosexual"
if you get caught having sex or if you tell someone you're gay.)

At Upstate, your new home will be a 105-square-foot rectangular room.
It'll be bigger than any other state prison cell you've lived in.
But it's still no larger than the bathrooms in many Manhattan
apartments. Step in and spread your arms, and your fingers will touch
both your bunk bed and the wall. But don't even think about
rearranging the furniture. The sink, toilet, desk, chair, mirror, and
bunk bed are already bolted to the cell's five-inch-thick walls.

Prison officials say they will try to find you a compatible cell
mate. If you smoke, you should wind up with a smoker. If you're
small, you're not supposed to get a roommate who can easily
overpower you. Most likely, you'll share a cell with someone who is
the same race. You may spend your days obsessing about whether he
has tuberculosis or HIV. And if prison officials don't do a good job
matching cell mates, you could be assaulted or raped or killed.

At first, it might not be so bad living with a roommate. He may help
you battle the boredom, and he could stop you from becoming suicidal.
But it won't be long before sharing a cell all day every day becomes
unbearable. You'll be able to tell what your cell mate has eaten for
breakfast by the stench of his feces. And soon, you will feel like
you are living inside his skin.

When you arrive at Upstate, the guards will confiscate most of your
possessions - snacks, razors, radio, photographs. All you'll have to
entertain you are a pen, paper, and your cell mate. You won't be
trading gossip in the mess hall, napping through ESL classes, or
playing ball in the rec yard. In fact, you won't be leaving your cell
at all. Food trays arrive through a slot in the door, and there's a
shower in the corner that's carefully regulated to spew lukewarm
water three times a week.

You will almost never see the prison's 370 guards. Nor will you see
much of the 300 "cadre" inmates, who keep the facility running,
mopping the halls and doing laundry. To stay plugged in to the
prison's gossip mill, you may try to chat with your neighbor on the
"telephone" - by plunging all the water out of your toilet and
shouting down the pipe. But if you're losing your mind, or if your
cell mate turns out to be a "booty bandit" (rapist), you better pray
the guard who is supposed to check on you every half-hour intervenes.
Good luck trying to get help from the outside world - from a
journalist or an attorney with Prisoners' Legal Services (PLS). Prison
officials don't let reporters interview inmates in the box, and
Governor George Pataki shut down PLS last year by decimating its budget.

A guard in a central tower will control your access to the outside
world. Each day, the officer will unlock your back door by flipping a
switch in the control room. Now is your time for "recreation" - a
privilege that the courts have said you must get. At Upstate, "rec
time" means 60 minutes by yourself in the outdoor cage attached to
the rear of your cell. It's about half the size of your cell, just
big enough to do jumping jacks. You could try to wrap your fingers
around the steel-mesh fence and do a few pull-ups. But you can't lift
barbells, toss horseshoes, or shoot hoops. The cage is empty. Of
course, even if you had a basketball, there's barely enough room to
dribble more than a couple of steps.

Looking out from your own personal rec area - what one of the prison's
architects describes as a "caged balcony" and some guards call a
"kennel" - you'll see other cages and a dirt yard empty except for a
row of surveillance cameras mounted on poles. Officers watch your
every move, and if you don't come in from recess, they'll come get
you.

But if you do follow the rules and don't irk the guards, you'll
regain a few privileges after 30 days. You'll be able to buy candy
from the prison store, though you won't actually be able to go there
and pick it out. And you'll get back your own underwear, so you can
ditch that state-issued pair. Stay clean and you will eventually
escape this prison-within-a-prison. You'll be shipped to another
facility to finish off your sentence or sent straight back to the
streets.

When Malone's townspeople discuss their new supermax, phrases like
"double-celling" or "inmate-on-inmate assaults" rarely pop up.
Instead, they talk about family reunions. Raymond Head, 35, is hoping
the new prison brings home his brother Jamie. Back home, the two
used to hang twice a week - "wrestling, playing Nintendo, whatever
brothers do," Raymond says. But now that Jamie, 28, has become a
guard at Eastern Correctional Facility in Ulster County, he rarely
sees Raymond, a guard and union leader at Malone's Franklin
Correctional Facility.

Career options are so few in the North Country that prison guard has
become a popular choice. Many correction officers spend the bulk of
their twenties working in other parts of the state before they can
collect enough seniority to transfer home. When Raymond became a
correction officer in 1984, he was assigned to Bedford Hills, the
women's maximum-security prison in Westchester County. There, he
earned $13,800 a year, and lived in a $700-a-month studio apartment.
Rents in the area were so steep that some of his colleagues slept in
their cars.

Raymond survived on 99-cent Big Macs and dreamed of a transfer back to
Malone, where his $45,000 annual salary far exceeds Malone's median
household income, which was $21,229 at the last census count. "I had
no idea what I was getting myself into," recalls Raymond. "I thought
about quitting a couple times down there. I was pretty homesick."

Raymond did nearly four years at Bedford Hills before he got home.
Since then, the wait for a transfer back to the North Country has
stretched to six or seven years. The opening of Upstate could shorten
this delay. Jamie filled out his "dream sheet" for a transfer to the
new supermax, but ended up number 448. "They're only taking 326,"
Raymond says. "So he probably won't make it. He'll have to sit back
and wait another year or a year-and-a-half."

Mayor Tavernier grows excited when she talks about Upstate's opening.
"Malone has been dying a bit," she says. "There's been no new
business for a few years. Since the prison has been announced, we
have . . . a wholesale food place, Aldi, which we had not had in the
area. And Price Chopper is coming to Malone. And a couple of
drugstores that had stores in the area are building larger ones."

Indeed, when the construction dust clears, Malone will have a total of
four drugstores and eight convenience stores. The enthusiasm the new
stores have created seems to have little to do with residents wanting
another place to purchase aspirin or toothpaste, however. In Malone,
pounding jackhammers and the growl of bulldozers are less a nuisance
than a morale booster.

The plethora of pharmacies in Malone is one of the few public signs of
the town's invisible population. Local drugstores have contracts
with the prisons; the inmates help keep them in business. And the
best customers at the town's many convenience stores are prison
guards, who often have long commutes. But this retail boom hardly
meets everyone's needs. "You go through this town and that's all you
see - 24-hour convenience stores," says Gerald K. Moll, the police
chief of Malone. "You can't buy a pair of jeans, but you can get
coffee and a newspaper." Shoppers hunting for bargains once flocked
to J.J. Newberry on Malone's Main Street. But today, all they will
find if they rub the dirt off the store's cracked windows is a
cavernous room empty save for a plastic garbage pail. J.J. Newberry
closed four years ago, and the dog feces caked to the cement walkway
in front appears to be almost that old. Sears has left town, too. Now
the best choice for Malone's clothes shoppers is Kmart. A waitress
at a Main Street diner tells visitors, "When you go back to New York
City, bring us some department stores!"

Hints of bitterness occasionally surface in conversations about
Upstate, since some residents already feel left out of this new town.
Lee Mandigo was thrilled when he first heard the state was building
a prison less than a quarter mile from his trailer home. "I thought,
'Hell, I live at the bottom of the hill and I have carpentry skills.
I could work up there for 18 months,'" says Lee, as he stands on his
front lawn, nodding toward the evergreen trees in the distance that
hide the supermax. But when Lee, 34, tried to land a construction job
at the prison, he says he was told there were no more available. All
the work had been contracted to out-of-town companies.

As the new supermax has grown, so has Lee's frustration. He has had
to endure watching the prison get a little closer to completion each
time he drives by, knowing that state money is flowing into other
people's pockets but not his. More than a year has passed since Lee
last saw a paycheck, and even when he had a job building roofs and
additions for other people's homes, he earned only $5.25 an hour.
"There's not enough work," he says, slouching forward as he shoves
his hands deep into his jean pockets. "Everyone is depressed."

To pay his bills and feed his two young children, Lee is clinging to
the same hope that buoys many of his fellow townspeople. He's trying
to get into the prison. When he's not caring for his one-year-old
daughter, Lee pores over photocopies he made at the local library of
a study book for the prison guard exam.

Lee's other solution to his cash shortage involved sticking a for-sale
sign in front of his house. Not long ago, he paid $6000 for these
seven-and-three-quarters acres of land, then bought a trailer home
for $7000. Lee figures his only chance for reaping a profit lies with
the families of Upstate's inmates, and he plans to ask his real
estate agent to advertise the property in a New York City newspaper.
Already, Lee says he knows what the ad will say: "Be close to your
loved one! Bottom of the hill! You can practically see 'em!"

Lee may be the only person in town who is hoping the new supermax
entices prisoners' family members to move here. At Embers, the
town's busiest diner, this possibility evokes strong emotions. "The
ones that are in prison now [in Malone], it's not that serious," says
Myra Fleury, the diner's 63-year-old owner, who hustles around in a
pair of fuzzy slippers, frying platefuls of bacon and refilling
coffee mugs. "They're not killers. They're drug addicts, deadbeat
dads." But the new inmates, Myra says, "won't be going home in two or
three years. So I think you might see more families moving in. That's
what people are concerned about."

"People are always afraid of changes," says Molly Augusta, who works
the diner's grill. Myra nods in agreement." Especially in small towns,"
she says.

The new prison has kept Malone's rumor mill grinding for nearly two
years. They're going to put the state's death house in Malone.
They're building a gas chamber. They're building a women's prison.
They're building a prison hospital. They're opening a home for the
criminally insane. They're building yet another men's prison. They're
building housing for inmates' relatives. State prison officials
insist none of these rumors are true. But that has not stopped them
from flying around every bar and coffee shop in town.

The town's most persistent rumor is that prisoners' families are
moving to Malone. This fear is not completely far-fetched. A few
inmates' relatives have moved to nearby Dannemora to be closer to
Clinton Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison. But this
rumor is repeated so often, and with such conviction, that it seems
to be about something far more than a handful of relatives. Perhaps
the wives and mothers and girlfriends and children of inmates
represent everything Malone fears most. They are mostly poor,
African American or Latino, and from New York City. Townspeople insist
that if these strangers move here, they'll rob Malone of its
small-town feel. Residents worry about having to lock their doors
when they leave their homes, or no longer recognizing most of their
fellow shoppers at the Super Duper Supermarket.

What concerns townspeople most is crime. It has been on the rise here
in recent years, and many locals blame the prisons. There are no
statistics showing that inmates' families are the cause, however.
"The only people who get in trouble are our local people," says
Molly, flipping hamburgers on the grill. "When you read about anyone
breaking into a place in the paper, it's a local person - not someone
whose husband is in prison."

When an almost all-white town is home to thousands of African American
and Hispanic felons, anxieties about race and crime never stray far
from the collective imagination. But few people in Malone want to
talk about race. One exception is Kaye K. Johnson, who estimates that
there are only 15 or 20 African Americans living in Malone, including
her own family. In 1990, Kaye, her husband, and their then
five-year-old son came to Malone from Trenton, New Jersey. "We moved
here to get away from urban decay, crime, drug dealers on the
corners," says Kaye, 51, as she serves tea in the living room of her
tidy, split-level home. "We saw an ad in the paper: No crime. Cheap
land. We called the number and they flew us up here and we bought
some land on sight."

Since arriving in Malone, Kaye has launched a one-woman campaign to
monitor and improve the town's race relations. Every time the Malone
Telegram or the Press-Republican in nearby Plattsburgh mention
prisons or racial incidents, Kaye cuts out the story. Her files are
bulging. Recent additions include an article about a guard accused of
public nudity (he was wandering around his porch dressed only in
socks, then hiding behind a barbecue when cars passed) and another
about a guard who was charged with sexually abusing an inmate in a
prison laundry room (the inmate fought back, slicing the guard's
penis with a coffee can lid).

Rooting through her manila folders stuffed with clippings, Kaye
wonders aloud how the prisons have changed her town, how they have
influenced residents' attitudes and behavior. "I'd never been called
the N-word until I moved here," says Kaye, a teaching assistant at
the local middle school. "At the same time, I've never met such nice
people as I did here either. It's like two extremes." Kaye believes
the prisons' racial imbalance is partly to blame for how some Malone
residents treat her. "The attitudes of correction officers spill over
into the community," she says. "Many of them haven't gone out of the
area, and the only black people they know are in the prisons. I
don't want to see these attitudes perpetuated."

So Kaye became Upstate's loudest opponent. Last year, she tried to
stop its construction by filing a lawsuit with the help of the Center
for Law and Justice, an antiprison group in Albany. Their suit
included almost every conceivable argument against the prison: that
it would spread tuberculosis and HIV, that it would increase noise in
the area, that it would adversely affect the environment, that it
would cause traffic jams, that it would disrupt water service. A
state supreme court judge ruled against them, saying they had failed
to show that Kaye herself would be adversely affected by the new
supermax. Like everybody else in town, Kaye worries about crime, and
about all the worst aspects of urban life coming to Malone. So she
too prays that inmates' relatives do not buy homes here. "I know all
prisoners' families are not criminally prone or dangerous," Kaye
says. "But you want your family to be safe and not have to worry
about drive-by shootings. And not that Malone is going to escalate to
that point, but . . . certain types of people - no matter what color
they are - I don't want them around."

Three miles away from Kaye's home, workers are putting the final
touches on the new prison-gluing tiles to the floors, sweeping up
debris, preparing to add the superintendent's name to the metal sign
out front. Soon the construction trucks will pull out of Upstate's
70-acre lot for the last time. People driving down Route 37 at night
will see an even brighter glow, as the new supermax joins with the
town's two other prisons to light the sky like a city in the
distance. Malone's residents will not hear the shouts echoing down
the corridors of their new high-security prison. But as pairs of
violent criminals from New York City and around the state move into
the supermax's cells, Malone's residents will be left to confront
their fears, to decide what problems the prison solves and which ones
it brings, and to wonder how this latest chapter in America's
experiment in crime control will end.

Research assistance: Hillary Chute
Tell us what you think: editor@villagevoice.com

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

Federal Courts Bogged Down In Methamphetamine Cases (The Tennessean says the
drug is clogging up the federal law enforcement system in Middle Tennessee.
Because criminal cases take precedence over civil cases, the impact of drug
cases is further magnified. Firearms or money-laundering charges often
accompany the illegal-drug charge, increasing costs all around. Wendy Goggin,
acting U.S. attorney for Middle Tennessee, said the 18 lawyers in her office
spend nearly 40 percent of their time investigating and prosecuting drug
cases, most of which involve meth. Despite ever more DEA agents, prosecutors
and judges, it's never enough.)

Date: Sat, 22 May 1999 06:26:04 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US TN: Federal Courts Bogged Down In Methamphetamine Cases
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: EWCHIEF
Pubdate: Wed, 19 May 1999
Source: Tennessean, The (TN)
Copyright 1999 The Tennessean
Contact: letters@tennessean.com
Website: http://www.tennessean.com/

FEDERAL COURTS BOGGED DOWN IN METHAMPHETAMINE CASES

The powder looks like talc or cocaine, but it's smoother than the
first and more powerful than the second.

In Middle Tennessee, the drug is clogging up the federal law
enforcement system, from the agents who hunt those who make it to the
judges who put away those who abuse it.

"It's going like gangbusters," Vince Morgano, assistant special agent
in charge of Tennessee for the Drug Enforcement Agency, said of
methamphetamine or meth, known on the street as crank.

"We are just getting flooded. The U.S. attorneys are swamped and the
judges are swamped," Morgano said.

And because criminal cases take precedence over civil cases in federal
court, the impact of the many drug cases is further magnified.

"It means civil cases scheduled for trial have to get bumped by
criminal cases under the speedy trial rule," said U.S. District Court
Judge Todd J. Campbell. "Because those cases have to come first, their
presence seems larger."

Drug cases also carry more baggage, Campbell said. Firearms or money
laundering charges often accompany the contraband charge, "so they
take a considerable amount of time."

And time is precious.

Wendy Goggin, acting U.S. attorney for Middle Tennessee, said the 18
lawyers in her office spend nearly 40% of their time investigating and
prosecuting drug cases, most of which involve meth. The rest of their
time is spent prosecuting fraud, firearm offenses and other felonies.

Because of the volume, Goggin said, her office must choose which drug
cases to pursue in federal court, where fines and prison sentences
are typically tougher than in the state system.

Morgano said he would like more cases to be heard in federal court,
but because of the backlog he is forced to hand over many cases to the
state system.

"They are not going free. They are prosecuted under the state system.
However, they are not getting anywhere near the same amount of time in
jail in the state system as they would in the federal," Morgano said.

Drug offenses can be filed in both courts, but the larger cases those
involving massive amounts of drugs, interstate traffic, conspiracy and
money laundering often become federal cases because of the harsher
penalties.

Despite the federal backlog, Morgano shows no signs of backing off.
His office is growing almost as much as the drug problem.

"In 1990, when I came here, this was still a medium-sized city with a
medium-sized drug problem," Morgano said. Today, it's the sprawling
home to a major league crank habit.

When Morgano came to Nashville, his office occupied a handful of rooms
and employed four agents.

Today, DEA offices cover much of the fifth floor of the federal
courthouse on Broadway. The agency, whose sole charge is to eradicate
illegal drugs, now employs eight agents and 10 police officers
deputized as agents. Four more agents have been budgeted for 2000.

It's still not enough.

To keep up with the drugs, Morgano said, he would need another 15
agents and the court would need more prosecutors and judges.

The DEA could already occupy Goggin's 18 assistant attorneys and the
six district court judges full time through drug arrests, he said.

With three major interstates dissecting it, an airport and plenty of
rural land to hide in, Nashville is the perfect halfway point for all
points east.

"This is like a pony express stop. All money and drugs stop here,"
Morgano said.

DEA arrests have increased from 77 in 1995 to 172 last year. So far
this year, 104 people have been arrested by DEA agents on drug charges.

Meth busts have more than tripled. Two years ago, the DEA busted 12
meth labs. Last year it hit 41. This year, 55 have been targeted.

Other agencies are also feeling the strain of the increase in drug
cases.

The IRS, which primarily chases tax offenders, also investigates drug
cases because of the large amounts of money involved.

The agency spends about 20% of its time investigating money laundering
and other financial felonies associated with drugs, said Anthony A.
Cesare, chief of the agency's Criminal Investigation Division for the
Kentucky- Tennessee district.

Like the U.S. attorneys, the IRS must pick and choose its cases and
manage how much time is spent on drug cases.

If it had more agents more drug cases would be initiated, Cesare
said.

Morgano said the cases he was sending through the federal system were
major cases, often involving many people, large amounts of drugs and
money.

More such cases are coming, he warned.

In the next few years, he said he expected three of every four cases his
office handled to involve methamphetamine, up from half of their cases
today.

There are signs Morgano will be proved correct.

Two major meth busts in Tennessee in the past six months signal to
Morgano that the state could be facing a turf war between the local
meth labs and those shipping the drug from South America.

All he can do to stop it is lock people up and file as many charges as
he can in federal court, he said.

"But the assistant U.S. attorneys have limited resources," he said.
"And there are only so many judges here to do my cases."

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

Miami-Dade Officer Charged In Plot To Steal Drugs, Cash (The Miami Herald
says James Vilmenay, a four-year veteran of the department, was arrested
Tuesday for allegedly plotting a bogus traffic stop with the intention of
stealing the driver's cocaine and cash.)

Date: Thu, 20 May 1999 11:32:05 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US FL: Miami-Dade Officer Charged In Plot To Steal Drugs, Cash
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Mike Gogulski
Pubdate: Wed, 19 May 1999
Source: Miami Herald (FL)
Copyright: 1999 The Miami Herald
Contact: heralded@herald.com
Address: One Herald Plaza, Miami FL 33132-1693
Fax: (305) 376-8950
Website: http://www.herald.com/
Forum: http://krwebx.infi.net/webxmulti/cgi-bin/WebX?mherald
Author: Frances Robles, Herald Staff Writer, frobles@herald.com

MIAMI-DADE OFFICER CHARGED IN PLOT TO STEAL DRUGS, CASH

A Miami-Dade police officer and his business partner were arrested Tuesday
for allegedly plotting to conduct a bogus traffic stop with the intention of
stealing the driver's drugs and cash.

James Vilmenay, 31, a four-year member of the department assigned to the
Hammocks district, was charged with conspiracy to traffic in cocaine and
conspiracy to commit grand theft. He and his codefendant, Richard Filippi,
29, were released from jail after they each posted a $50,000 bond.

Police said Vilmenay and Filippi planned last year to pull over and rob a
man who was supposed to be carrying cocaine and lots of money. The man was
really a witness cooperating with internal affairs investigators.

Vilmenay was off duty but in his marked police car when he planned to stop
the driver, police said. The robbery never took place -- the department did
not say why.

Investigators would not say how Vilmenay would have known the driver carried
drugs, or why the department's Professional Compliance Bureau was
investigating Vilmenay in the first place.

"I'm sure there was a reason that drew [internal affairs investigators] to
him," said police spokesman Ed Munn. "They don't pick officers out of the
blue and follow them hoping they are going to rip somebody off."

Munn said that even though the rip-off never took place, the officer and his
friend would still be guilty of a felony for planning the crime.

Vilmenay continues to collect his $16.24 per hour pay while suspended from
duty. Police records show the only prior complaint against him was in 1996,
when he was exonerated for shooting an animal.

Police Benevolent Association lawyers did not return calls seeking comment.
Filippi, the officer's partner in a hair salon business, did not return a
message left at his Kendall home.

"This is embarrassing for myself and everyone else on the department to talk
about," Munn said. "Miami-Dade Police will not tolerate this type of
criminal activity on the part of any officer."

e-mail: frobles@herald.com

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

The Racial Issue Looming In The Rear-View Mirror (The Washington Post says
that from the U.S. Justice Department and Capitol Hill to Sacramento and
other state capitals, there is a growing assault on racial profiling.
Perceptions matter in part because there is relatively little hard data. As
observed by David Cole, a Georgetown University Law School professor who
wrote "No Equal Justice: Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice
System," there is also "no data that shows a police department doesn't engage
in racial profiling." Part of the problem is that current crime statistics,
which reflect the racist impact of such policies in the past, may be used as
justification for continuing them. For example, in the April edition of
"Vital Stats," the Statistical Assessment Service says "crime patterns," that
is, racial disparities in arrests, prosecutions, and sentencing, may make it
"rational" for police to focus more on blacks and males than on whites and
women: "The unpleasant truth is that profiling can be statistically
valid . . . ." Cole agrees that the "stereotype the police are relying on is
not entirely irrational.")

Date: Fri, 21 May 1999 20:40:38 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: The Racial Issue Looming In The Rear-View Mirror
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Craig VanDeVooren
Pubdate: Wed, 19 May 1999
Source: Washington Post (DC)
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/
Page: A3
Author: Edward Walsh, Washington Post Staff Writer

THE RACIAL ISSUE LOOMING IN THE REAR-VIEW MIRROR

Activists Seek Data On Police 'Profiling'

Kevin Murray is 39, a successful Los Angeles lawyer who drives a black
Corvette. One night last June, Murray was stopped by police in affluent
Beverly Hills.

Later, the officer would claim she had stopped him because his car lacked a
front license tag. But Murray said the officer never mentioned the front
tag when she pulled him over and did not issue him a traffic citation.
Murray concluded that he was stopped only because he is black.

That might have been the end of it except that Murray was also a member of
the California Assembly, and on the night he was stopped had just won the
Democratic primary for a seat in the state Senate, where he now serves.
Within weeks of the stop, he introduced legislation requiring California
law enforcement agencies to collect and make public records on the race,
ethnicity, gender and age of everyone they stop. The bill breezed through
the legislature, only to be vetoed by then-Gov. Pete Wilson (R).

But Murray is back with a similar bill this year and he is not alone. From
the Justice Department and Capitol Hill to Sacramento and other state
capitals, there is a growing assault on "racial profiling" by police, the
practice of stopping black and other minority motorists for questioning,
and sometimes a search, because of their race or ethnic background.

The American Civil Liberties Union renewed its criticism of racial
profiling yesterday in a lawsuit filed in federal district court in
Oklahoma City. The suit alleges that Army Sgt. Rossano V. Gerald, 37, who
is black, and his then 12-year-old son, Gregory, were stopped by Oklahoma
state troopers and subjected to more than two hours of questioning last
August. Searching Gerald's car without his permission, the troopers did
more than $1,000 in damage to the vehicle, according to the suit. They
found nothing illegal.

Attorney General Janet Reno has condemned racial profiling and endorsed the
concept of data collection to learn how extensive the practice is. Rep.
John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) has introduced legislation that would require
the Justice Department to collect racial and ethnic data about police stops
from law enforcement agencies across the country. Bills similar to Murray's
are being considered in other states.

Meanwhile, many leaders of police organizations wonder what all the fuss is
about. Many deny that racial profiling is a widespread police practice and
maintain that when it has occurred it has been an exception.

Skeptics include Robert T. Scully, president of the National Association of
Police Organizations, an umbrella group for 4,000 police unions. "I really
don't believe racial profiling happens," said Scully. "Police are not
stopping people because of the car they drive or the color of their skin.
They stop people because of probable cause. If [profiling] is going on, it
is the exception to the rule."

San Jose Police Chief William Lansdowne is another skeptic. He said that of
100,000 police stops a year, about 10 result in profiling allegations filed
with the department. "I don't believe it is occurring in our police
department, but the complaint is consistent from senior citizens, youths
and people of color," Lansdowne said. "I don't think we do a good enough
job explaining the reason for a car stop."

Lansdowne is not waiting for any legislative mandate. Later this month, his
department will begin collecting race and other data about every traffic
stop. "Our feeling is quite simple," said Jim Tomaino, president of the San
Jose Police Officers Association. "If you have nothing to hide, you have
nothing to hide. [Racial profiling] is a perception. But there's a big
difference between perception and fact and we said we'll show you the facts."

Perceptions, whether or not grounded in reality, have an impact on how
people act and think, which is why Lansdowne ordered the additional data
collection. "It's all about trust," he said. "I think we have a
responsibility to work closely together with community leaders. It's not
going to go away. We have an obligation to address it."

Perceptions matter in part because there is relatively little hard data on
racial profiling. "We don't know how prevalent it is," said Chuck Wexler,
executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum. "But I'll tell
you one thing: police chiefs are looking at it."

David Cole, a Georgetown University Law School professor, agreed there is a
lack of verifiable information. But Cole, the author of "No Equal Justice:
Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System," said what
information is available suggests profiling is taking place. "There is no
data that shows a police department doesn't engage in racial profiling," he
said.

In 1992, the Orlando Sentinel obtained police videotapes of traffic stops
of more than 1,000 motorists by officers in a special drug unit of the
Volusia County, Fla., Sheriff's Department. They showed almost 70 percent
of traffic stops and 80 percent of vehicle searches were of black and
Hispanic motorists. Although a Florida Supreme Court decision requires
that deputies stop motorists only for legitimate traffic violations, only
nine of the 1,084 drivers who were stopped were given a traffic citation.

As part of a settlement of a lawsuit brought by the ACLU, the Maryland
State Police agreed in the mid-1990s to collect data on traffic stops. The
results stunned even the ACLU. On a stretch of Interstate 95 northeast of
Baltimore, a focal point in police drug interdiction efforts, black drivers
accounted for 17 percent of the traffic but 70 percent of those who were
stopped.

The most recent case involved an investigation of the New Jersey State
Police by that state's attorney general's office, the outgrowth of lawsuits
alleging racial profiling. In a report issued last month, the investigators
said that motorists stopped by troopers stationed at two state police
barracks along the New Jersey Turnpike were about 25 percent black and 40
percent minority. But black drivers accounted for more than half and black
and Hispanic drivers more than three-quarters of the cars that were
searched by police.

In what it described as "this insidious cycle," the New Jersey report said,
"police officers may be subjecting minority citizens to heightened scrutiny
and more probing investigative tactics that lead to more arrests that are
then used to justify those same tactics."

In the April edition of its newsletter, "Vital Stats," the Statistical
Assessment Service said that while crime patterns may make it "rational"
for police to focus more on blacks and males than on whites and women,
"most individual blacks, like most males, never commit serious crime. The
unpleasant truth is that profiling can be statistically valid and yet have
discriminatory real world results since most blacks who are stopped on
suspicion [like most males] will be innocent people."

"One reason this problem is so widespread is that the stereotype the police
are relying on is not entirely irrational," said Cole. "It is more likely
that a young black man will commit crimes than an elderly white woman.
Minorities commit more crimes than whites [on a percentage-of-population
basis]. I don't think all these police officers are bigoted in the
traditional sense."

But "if you start using race as a proxy for suspicion you are going to
sweep in a whole lot of innocent people. You also create a great deal of
enmity and it undermines law enforcement when people see the police as
their enemy," he said.

Whether they believe the allegations of widespread racial profiling, police
executives around the country know that this perception by many blacks and
other minorities cannot be ignored. Last fall, the International
Association of Chiefs of Police held a forum on "professional traffic
stops" that emphasized the importance of training and supervision to
prevent "biased traffic stops."

The organization opposes legislation mandating the collection of racial
data at traffic stops, arguing that it would be burdensome and could make
what is often a difficult and sometimes dangerous moment in police work
even more so. The organization also argues that the resources that would be
applied to data collection could be better used improving police training
and paying for video cameras in all police cruisers. But it does not deny
that racial profiling happens.

"It clearly does happen," said Dan Rosenblatt, executive director of the
chiefs' association. "And where it does happen, it is a problem. New Jersey
found it. We're still not convinced that the problems are systemic or
widespread. . . . But to say it is not a problem when it is is denying
reality."

The Police Executive Research Forum recently held a meeting on the subject
with about 20 police chiefs and community leaders from their cities and is
trying to craft a model policy on traffic stops. Wexler, the group's
executive director, said the community leaders made clear that while they
object to some police tactics, they want a continuation of the aggressive
policing that has helped produce a dramatic decline in the crime rate in
many cities.

"Police departments are as effective as the community allows them to be and
that's critical," Wexler said. "The days of what James Baldwin called an
occupying army are over. It's not that people just want more police. They
want more and better police. They don't want an invading army, but they
also don't want the police to back off."

New Jersey Stops and Searches

The New Jersey attorney general prepared a study of motor vehicle stops and
searches by officers from two state police stations, Moorestown and
Cranbury. The study found a disproportionate number of minorities were
searched.

Motor vehicle stops

White 59%

Black 27%

Hispanic 7%

Asian 4%

Other 3%

Searches

White 21%

Black 53%

Hispanic 24%

Asian 1%

Other 1%

NOTES: Stop figures are from April 1997 through November 1998. Search
figures are from various dates between January 1994 and February 1999.

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

Some 750 Canadians Apply To Grow Hemp (According to UPI, Canada's health
department says it has received about 750 applications from farmers across
the country to grow industrial hemp, and has approved more than two-thirds
of them.)

Date: Thu, 20 May 1999 11:32:01 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Canada: Wire: Some 750 Canadians Apply To Grow Hemp
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: EWCHIEF
Pubdate: Wed, 19 May 1999
Source: United Press International
Copyright: 1999 United Press International

SOME 750 CANADIANS APPLY TO GROW HEMP

OTTAWA, May 19 (UPI) - Canada's health department says it has received some
750 applications from farmers across the country to grow industrial hemp,
and has approved more than two-thirds of them.

The federal government announced last year that it was lifting a ban on
growing industrial hemp, which is related marijuana, the narcotic variety
of the Cannabis sativa plant, but does have the narcotic content.

The government decided to lift the ban as hemp has wide industrial uses,
including the production of a tough fiber from the stem, which can be used
for the manufacture of strong fabrics, such as those used for sails.

Health Canada officials said today the lifting of the ban had proved popular
among farmers, but most chose to delay submitting their applications until
"the last couple of weeks," though they have had since Jan. 1 to do so.

As a result, there has been a big pile up in the applications, and the
department has been able to approve 530, with about 90 more set to be
approved shortly.

Growing the narcotic variety of cannabis is still a criminal offense, and
industrial-hemp growing in Canada is expected to be closely monitored as
industrial hemp bears a close resemblance to the narcotic plant.

Some 40 of the applications were to grow industrial hemp for research
purposes, and 25 of these have been approved.

Health Canada recently received parliamentary approval to carry out clinical
tests for the medical use of marijuana, and is expected to make an
announcement on the subject shortly.

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

Tax Hikes Turn Teens Off Smoking: Study (According to the Toronto Star, the
World Bank calculated in a report to health ministers in Geneva that tax
hikes are the most effective way to stop adolescents from smoking. Stopping
adults through prohibitory taxes also appealed to the bankers. The Star
doesn't say if the bankers actually calculated the costs associated with an
illicit market in cigarettes, only that they insisted "the appropriate
response to smuggling is to crack down on criminal activity" - after all,
that wouldn't come out of their budget. Canadians went down this road before,
which may explain why cartons supposedly average $15 less there than in the
United States.)

Date: Wed, 19 May 1999 11:45:59 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Canada: Tax Hikes Turn Teens Off Smoking: Study
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Dave Haans
Pubdate: Wed, 19 May 1999
Source: Toronto Star (Canada)
Copyright: 1999, The Toronto Star
Contact: lettertoed@thestar.com
Website: http://www.thestar.com/
Author: Tim Harper, Toronto Star Ottawa Bureau

TAX HIKES TURN TEENS OFF SMOKING: STUDY
Higher prices save lives, World Bank report says

OTTAWA - Some 10 million tobacco-related deaths could have been prevented
over the past four years if cigarette taxes were hiked 10 per cent per
package, the World Bank reported yesterday.

In a report released to health ministers meeting in Geneva, the bank argues
that tax hikes are the most effective means of stopping adolescents from
smoking.

The study also attempts to dismiss fears that tax hikes could decrease tax
revenues by reducing the number of smokers and says fears of massive
smuggling operations should not be an argument against tax hikes.

``Rather than forgoing tax increases,'' the report states, ``the appropriate
response to smuggling is to crack down on criminal activity.''

It was the smuggling concerns that led to massive tobacco tax rollbacks in
Canada, particularly in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritime provinces in 1994.

In Ontario, for example, the price of a carton of 200 cigarettes was rolled
back by $19.20.

Since then, Ottawa and Queen's Park have added only $3.20 to the cost of
that carton through taxes.

``It's completely baffling to us why the federal and provincial governments
have not raised tobacco taxes,'' said Rob Cunningham of the Canadian Cancer
Society.

``There is compelling data available on the effect on adolescent smoking.

``We are in a position now where a carton of cigarettes in the United States
is now $15 more expensive than in Canada.''

The bank report was released at the World Health Assembly, a body made up of
health ministers around the world and the governing body of the World Health
Organization.

Ottawa's delegation is led by Toronto MP Elinor Caplan, parliamentary
secretary to federal Health Minister Allan Rock.

British Columbia's Penny Priddy, the first provincial health minister to try
to recoup health-care costs from tobacco companies, was scheduled to deliver
an address to international delegates.

The World Bank says smoking already kills one in 10 adults worldwide, but
that number will rise to one in six by 2030.

The heaviest tolls are shifting toward the world's poorest countries and the
World Bank now says within 20 years, seven of 10 people killed by smoking
will be in low-income and middle-income nations.

``The most effective way to deter children from taking up smoking is to
increase taxes on tobacco,'' the World Bank says in its report.

``High prices prevent some children and adolescents from starting and
encourage those who already smoke to reduce their consumption.''

Evidence from all countries also shows higher taxes induce adult smokers to
quit and reduce the number of ex-smokers who begin again.

A 10 per cent tax increase would reduce consumption by 4 per cent -
worldwide that would mean 40 million smokers would have quit by now if the
hike had been implemented in 1995.

Eight of 10 smokers in more prosperous, industrialized nations, such as
Canada, begin in their teens, the study says.

Smoking-related health-care costs account for 6 to 15 per cent of total
governmental spending on an annual basis, the report says.

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

Poll: Suspicion High On Both Sides Of Border (The Arizona Republic version)

Date: Thu, 20 May 1999 11:32:23 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US AZ: Poll: Suspicion High On Both Sides Of Border
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: EWCHIEF
Pubdate: Wed, 19 May 1999
Source: Arizona Republic (AZ)
Copyright: 1999, The Arizona Republic.
Contact: Opinions@pni.com
Website: http://www.azcentral.com/news/
Forum: http://www.azcentral.com/pni-bin/WebX?azc

POLL: SUSPICION HIGH ON BOTH SIDES OF BORDER

Americans and Mexicans blame each other for illegal drug trafficking, and
both sides believe the other has benefited more from free trade in North

America, according to a survey of national attitudes released Tuesday.

The study, conducted by the polling company Louis Harris & Associates Inc.,
also revealed that an overwhelming majority of Mexicans believes the U.S.
government is unfair to Mexicans who illegally enter and reside in the United

States. A small majority believes the U.S. government mistreats Mexicans who
legally live north of the border.

In addition, the Harris poll showed Mexican displeasure with President
Clinton, despite his controversial rescue of Mexico's economy four years ago.

Louis Harris conducted the survey of both countries between April 8 and May 3.

On the subject of drugs, 50 percent of the 4,500 Mexicans surveyed said
Americans' appetite for buying and using drugs is the main culprit for the
illegal trade. By contrast, of the 1,006 Americans surveyed, 48 percent blame

Mexico for failing to take strong action against Mexican drug dealers.

As for imports and exports, a majority of Mexicans, 73 percent, believes the
North American Free Trade Agreement has been good for the United States,
while 47 percent say the accord has been bad for Mexico. North of the
border, 57 percent of Americans report that the pact has paid dividends for
Mexico, and only 39 percent say it has been beneficial for the United States.

The independent survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage
points, Louis Harris reported.

With regard to immigration, 82 percent of Mexicans believe the U.S.
government treats Mexicans sneaking across the border unfairly.

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Battle Lines Drawn As Summit Deepens (The Illawarra Mercury, in Australia,
says the Salvation Army's Major Brian Watters, who heads Prime Minister John
Howard's drugs advisory council, came under fire yesterday as battle lines
emerged between conservatives and reformers at the New South Wales drug
summit in Sydney. Professor Peter Reuter of Maryland University said there
was no scientific evidence to show that U.S.-style zero tolerance policies
would curb the drug problem. "Beware of Americans bearing certainties," he
said. "The end of the Cold War may have been a good thing but it has not made
American policy-makers one bit more humble; particularly in this area they
are prone to claims that I would argue are implausible, particularly as to
the values of toughness.")

Date: Thu, 20 May 1999 23:31:53 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Australia: Battle Lines Drawn As Summit Deepens
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Ken Russell
Pubdate: Wed, 19 May 1999
Source: Illawarra Mercury (Australia)
Copyright: Illawarra Newspapers
Contact: editor@illnews.com.au
Website: http://mercury.illnews.com.au/

BATTLE LINES DRAWN AS SUMMIT DEEPENS

The head of Prime Minister John Howard's drugs advisory council came under
fire yesterday as battle lines emerged between conservatives and reformers
at the NSW drug summit.

The Salvation Army's Major Brian Watters maintained his opposition to any
relaxation of drug laws, saying allowing shooting galleries would lead to
the legalisation of heroin, cocaine and amphetamines.

``What we are really looking at is an incremental shift in policy that
would involve ... the availability of what are currently illicit drugs,''
he told the summit.

Under questioning from reformers, Maj Watters stood by the abstinence-based
approach that he has advocated as head of Mr Howard's advisory council.

``I don't know what the experts know but I know what I know,'' he said.

Uniting Church Reverend Harry Herbert said Maj Watters was engaging in
``trench warfare'' over decriminalisation of marijuana.

Drugs campaigner Tony Trimingham, one of the organisers of the ``T-Room''
illegal shooting gallery, drew gasps when he asked Maj Watters to explain
why he once said ``the wages of sin are death and addiction is a sin''.

Maj Watters said he had been quoting the Bible to show that choosing
treatment was like choosing ``God's gift of life'' for addicts.

Professor Peter Reuter of Maryland University said there was no scientific
evidence to show that US-style zero tolerance policies would curb the drug
problem.

``Beware of Americans bearing certainties,'' he said.

``The end of the Cold War may have been a good thing but it has not made
American policy-makers one bit more humble; particularly in this area they
are prone to claims that I would argue are implausible, particularly as to
the values of toughness.''

Meantime, one of the Government's strongest opponents of heroin shooting
galleries, Cabramatta MP Reba Meagher, softened her stance by calling for a
referendum on the issue at the September local government elections. Ms
Meagher said local communities needed the final say on whether shooting
galleries were established in their area.

``Many residents of Kings Cross may support safe injecting rooms while the
community of Cabramatta has continually opposed them,'' she said.

Christian Democrats MP Fred Nile said addicts could be housed in army
barracks for 12 months while they underwent treatment with Naltrexone, the
blocker drug that prevents addicts getting a hit from heroin.

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Thousands Will Lose The Right To Trial By Jury (The Guardian version)

Date: Wed, 19 May 1999 11:46:11 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: UK: Thousands Will Lose The Right To Trial By Jury
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Martin Cooke (mjc1947@cyberclub.iol.ie)
Pubdate: Wed, 19 May 1999
Source: Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright: Guardian Media Group 1999
Contact: letters@guardian.co.uk
Website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Author: Alan Travis, Home Affairs Editor

THOUSANDS WILL LOSE THE RIGHT TO TRIAL BY JURY

More than 18,500 defendants a year are to be stripped of their time-honoured
right to a jury trial, the home secretary will announce today. The decision
to end the right to elect trial by crown court jury represents a further
blow to Britain's ancient jury system in the wake of plans to abolish jury
trials for complex fraud cases.

Jack Straw, who in opposition said the reform was 'wrong, short-sighted and
likely to prove ineffective', has now swung behind the move. It comes after
pressure from the lord chancellor, Lord Irvine, who sees it as a measure
which could save millions of pounds.

The announcement is expected to be made in a speech by Mr Straw to the
Police Federation conference in Blackpool.

The home office says the right to choose a jury trial in its modern form
dates back to 1855 and covers a wide range of middle ranking offences,
including theft, handling stolen goods and some other crimes which are minor
but also strike at the accused's reputation for personal honesty.

Defendants charged with these 'either way' offences can choose whether their
case is heard in the magistrates' or crown court. The reform would affect
about 20% of cases currently tried before a judge and jury in England and
Wales - last year this amounted to 18,500 cases.

Mr Straw is to press ahead despite strong opposition from the Bar Council
and the Law Society, which insist that the proposal would abolish a right
which goes back to the 12th century.

Bruce Holder, of the Bar Council, said: 'This is the back door removal of
jury trial and will be an unfortunate inroad into something which is being
marginalised all the time.'

The Bar Council also warns that recent home office research showed that
black defendants get a worse chance in magistrates' courts than they do
before juries.

In theft cases, a higher proportion of black defendants are sent to prison
by magistrates than white defendants. A much higher proportion of black
defendants elect to jury trial than whites, believing there is a better
chance of acquittal in the crown court.

The research says this is a major reason for defendants opting for jury
trial, coupled with the belief that magistrates are 'on the side of the
police.' But the research also shows they are mistaken if they go to the
crown court in the hope of a lighter sentence.

Mr Straw is expected to say the change is designed to end abuse of the
system which leads to delay, a waste of resources, and a prolonged wait for
justice. It is estimated that the average cost of a contested jury trial is
UKP13,500, compared with UKP2,500 for a magistrates' court case.

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Deny Hard Core Addicts Their Last Chance? (A list subscriber translates and
excerpts much of an article from Germany's Basler Zeitung, which says the
leadership of Switzerland's EDU evangelical party, Federal Democratic Union,
is using false arguments in a referendum campaign aimed at stopping
Switzerland's heroin-maintenance trial for long-term addicts.)

Date: Tue, 25 May 1999 10:58:56 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Switzerland: Deny Hard Core Addicts Their Last Chance?
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Pat Dolan
Pubdate: 19 May 1999
Source: Survey of German Language Newspapers for 19 May 99
Courtesy: Harald Lerch (HaL@main-rheiner.de)
Trans: Pat Dolan (pdolan@intergate.bc.ca)
(Translator's note: I feel that this is worth while as it recaps a. what
the Swiss trial actually was and b. the arguments being used against it. pd)

DENY HARD CORE ADDICTS THEIR LAST CHANCE?

Thomas Mueller writes in the 'Basler Zeitung' (http://www.baz.ch) under
the headline: Deny Hard Core Addicts Their Last Chance?

Some 860 drug addicts currently receive heroin from the state to facilitate
their re-entry into an ordered lifestyle and departure one day from a life
of addiction. A referendum conducted under the leadership of the EDU
evangelical party, 'Federal Democratic Union', is aimed at overturning the
decision to continue the trial and is using false arguments in its struggle
to do so.

Basle. The heroin trial aims at helping those addicts who are not to be
helped by any other means. What is at issue here is a very narrowly focused
offer of therapy to those addicts who a. have been dependent for at least
two years; have tried and withdrawn from other forms of therapy at least
twice, and who are 18 years of age or older and are now, because of their
drug consumption, suffering physically, psychologically or spiritually, or
have fallen from their position on the social ladder. It is but one of many
forms of therapy and is not intended for mass consumption. The heroin is
given out in specialized centers and must be consumed on the premises.

The heroin-based treatment is a reaction to the dramatically miserable
condition of many drug addicts at the end of the 80s. At that time the open
drug scenes in Zurich, Basle and Berne were the focus of drug policy
debate. It was impossible to overlook the suffering of many of the addicts.
Drug related crime rose sharply in the cities concerned. The heroin
distribution is supported by a majority of the political parties and the
governing council as part of the 'Four Pillars Policy': Prevention,
Therapy, Harm Reduction and Law Enforcement.

Medically supervised distribution of heroin aims at improving the health of
the addicts, freeing them from the stress of having to provide their drugs
through crime on the street. In the long term, the improvement of their
quality of life will facilitate their climb out of a life of addiction.

(We continue with a slightly abbreviated summary of the main points of the
rest of the article. pd)

At the end of the three year trial the balance sheet was drawn up by the
Institute for Addiction Research and the Institute for Social and
Preventive Medicine. It proved to be very positive. The health of many
addicts was improved and stabilized. Consumption of illegally obtained
drugs decreased significantly, as did also criminal behavior. The number of
those in full and part time employment rose steadily, while two-thirds of
those who left the program transferred to abstinence (30%) or methadone
(37%) based therapies.

A study published in 1998 showed that when compared with methadone based
therapy, the heroin trial showed improved results in all significant areas,
including the number of those who completed the program. The report moved
the government in 1998 to make heroin based therapy a permanent part of the
'4-Pillar Policy', its expansion being approved by two-thirds of the Swiss
people.

The initiative currently under way by the EDA is aimed at overturning this
decision of the Swiss people. They have collected over 50,000 signatures,
enough to force another referendum. The vote will be held June 13. The
arguments being used are based on the usual scare stories suggesting the
number of participants will rise astronomically, or that heroin is 'highly
toxic', and drawing attention to any aspect of the heroin trial which was
regarded by any of the critics as being less than perfect, as for instance,
the alleged failure to provide a scientifically approved control group.
Heroin is, in fact, no more toxic than morphine which is prescribed daily
in Swiss hospitals, so that there is no rational reason to object to
re-registering heroin in the medical pharmacopoeia. The cost argument is
easily turned since any therapy has to be paid for and the social costs of
sickness (AIDS) and crime are constantly to be reckoned with and
considerably higher when no help is provided. (Complete report at website
given above)

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[End]