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

Tacoma Activist Busted (A list subscriber says medicinal-marijuana cultivator
Charlie Grissom has been busted and feels abandoned.)

From: "Bob Owen" (when@olywa.net)
To: "HempTalk" (hemp-talk@hemp.net)
Subject: HT: Tacoma Activist Busted
Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 20:59:33 -0700
Organization: Washington Hemp Education Network

Charlie Grissom was busted in Tacoma. He grew for Green Cross, I think.

While I don't know the specifics yet, I've heard that he feels pretty alone
and abandoned right now.

We'll be learning more about it soon, but if you're so disposed, call him and
give the encouragement you can.

His number is 253-537-7328. If you call and find out more, put it on
hemp-talk.

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

State Panel Nears Approval To Dispense Marijuana (The San Mateo County Times
says a task force appointed by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer
charged with implementing Proposition 215, comprised of everyone from
patients to pot growers to police to physicians, meets again this afternoon
in Sacramento. A legislative bill containing the task force's proposal should
come up within a few weeks.)

Date: Sat, 5 Jun 1999 02:27:50 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US CA: State Panel Nears Approval To Dispense Marijuana
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Jo-D Harrison Dunbar
Pubdate: Thu, 27 May 1999
Source: San Mateo County Times
Copyright: 1999 MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers
Contact: eangsmc@newschoice.com
Website: http://www.newschoice.com/newspapers/alameda/smct/
Author: Josh Richman, Staff Writer

STATE PANEL NEARS APPROVAL TO DISPENSE MARIJUANA

Distribution For Medical Use May Get Endorsement

A state task force could agree on a plan for legal distribution of medical
marijuana as early as today, a spokesman for the group said Wednesday.

At the least, a legislative bill containing the task force's proposal should
come up within a few weeks. Its passage could reduce a major obstacle to
implementing Proposition 215, the 1996 ballot measure that expressed
California voters' will to allow use of marijuana as medicine.

But whatever the state does, the federal government still holds a trump card
-- the Controlled Substances Act, which still lists marijuana as a
dangerous, addictive and medically non-useful drug. And federal efforts to
move marijuana to a less restrictive category, or schedule, seem to have
stalled for the moment.

"No matter what we come up with, we're going to be in a dilemma until the
feds reschedule -- that's just a given," said Santa Clara County Assistant
District Attorney Karyn Sinunu, whose boss, District Attorney George
Kennedy, co-chairs California's medical marijuana task force.

"Obviously, all our prayers would be answered if it would be rescheduled,"
she said. "Everyone is in agreement that a pharmacy would be the ideal place
to dispense marijuana, and that could happen once it goes into another
schedule."

But the state can't sit on its hands waiting for Washington to act, said
Nathan Barankin, spokesman for state Attorney General Bill Lockyer. Inaction
while awaiting rescheduling "is an exercise in folly if you're looking for
something to be at least partially implemented before we're too far into the
next century," he said.

"What's happening in the meanwhile is that people are running around making
it up as they go along, and that's no good."

That has been the case since Proposition 215 authorized medical use of
marijuana in 1996 without providing a way for patients to get it legally.
Cannabis buyers clubs sprung up, only to be closed by federal and state
agencies as unauthorized dealers. Local police and prosecutors have had no
guidance for dealing with buyers clubs, farms and even personal possession,
so enforcement has been piecemeal.

But Lockyer and Gov. Gray Davis have taken a much more sympathetic stance
than their Republican predecessors, and Lockyer convened the task force to
develop statewide enforcement standards and a distribution framework.

"We have met four times as a full task force, and there have been working
groups and drafting committees that have met regularly in between," said
Rand Martin, chief of staff to state Sen. John Vasconcellos, D-Santa Clara,
and co-chairman of the task force with Kennedy.

The task force, comprised of everyone from patients to pot growers to police
to physicians, meets again this afternoon in Sacramento to dissect the
latest proposal.

"It is possible that the task force could come to agreement tomorrow on most
if not all provisions of the draft," Martin said Wednesday, adding it's just
as likely task force members will have to go back to their respective
organizations for final approval. "I'm not sure how many of them have
authority to immediately adopt something."

Martin, Sinunu and Barankin wouldn't discuss any specifics of the draft
proposal Wednesday.

Vasconcellos has already introduced a bill to which the task force's plan
will be added. Sinunu said she expects that will happen "within two weeks."

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., has introduced a bill to move marijuana to
a less restrictive drug schedule.

Frank's spokesman said Wednesday the bill is lying dormant in a House
committee with no forecast of movement in the foreseeable future.

A rider attached to the federal omnibus budget bill told the Food and Drug
Administration to report to Congress on efforts to enforce federal rules on
marijuana and other Schedule I drugs.

The report was due within 90 days of the bill's signing last October; it
hasn't been delivered yet.

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

Chamber Of Commerce Snubs 'The Head Shop' (The Lompoc Record, in California,
says Lompoc Valley Chamber of Commerce officials turned down one of the
City's newest businesses for membership Wednesday. Critics of the business
say it promotes the drug culture by selling water pipes, often known as bongs
to marijuana users. David Gage, the owner, noted his business and the sale of
those pipes is legal. He says the pipes are for tobacco use only. Gage said
he was surprised by the board's decision because his store does not allow
tobacco products to be sold to minors, while another business that belongs to
the chamber has been in trouble with the law for such sales. "The vast
majority come in and say 'This is a neat store. I'm really glad you're
here,'" Gage said.)

Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 20:17:50 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US CA: Chamber Of Commerce Snubs 'The Head Shop'
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Jo-D Harrison Dunbar
Pubdate: Thu, 27 May 1999
Source: Lompoc Record (CA)
Copyright: 1999 The Lompoc Record
Contact: newsroom@lompocrecord.com
Website: http://www.lompocrecord.com/
Author: Yadira Galindo, Record Staff Writer
Note: Related article: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/a/n441/a09.html

Lompoc Valley Chamber of Commerce officials turned down one of the City's
newest businesses for membership in the group Wednesday, saying the business
doesn't fit into the chamber's mission.

The chamber's executive board voted 7-2 with two abstentions and six others
out of town, against adding The Head Shop to the chamber, said Denny
Anderson, chamber executive vice president.

Head Shop has attracted attention and controversy since before it opened its
doors May 1 because it sells products that Chamber President Robert Hudson
wrote "does not keep with the purpose of the chamber and our mission
statement to promote a strong local economy and quality of life."

Hudson wrote the letter to The Head Shop Wednesday, as the chamber is in the
middle of a long push trying to promote a strong downtown.

David Gage, the owner of the store in the 100 block of South H Street, said
the decision was wrong because his store brings taxes to the community as
well as paying rent for space in downtown.

"There is a small group of people in Lompoc that control people's freedom,"
said Gage. "It's sad. It really is. It's a shame."

Critics of the business say it promotes the drug culture by selling water
pipes, often known as bongs to marijuana users.

Gage noted his business and the sale of those pipes is totally legal. He
says the pipes he sells are for tobacco use only.

To become a member of the chamber of commerce a business must submit an
application with the chamber board.

According to Anderson, every application is taken on a case-by-case basis.
No other applications have been denied recently and the board's word is
final, said Anderson.

Gage said he was surprised by the board's decision because his store follows
the law and does not allow the sale of tobacco products to minors. He
alleged that a member business of the chamber has been in trouble with the
law for selling tobacco products to minors and so he cannot understand why
he would be denied membership, said Gage.

Anderson denied having knowledge of any member businesses being in trouble
with the law for any reason.

The board's decision will not affect The Head Shop in any way, said Gage. He
said the community has been very supportive of his business in the first
month of operation.

According to Gage the store has done very well this month and has gotten
little negative comments from community members.

"The vast majority (of the community) come in and say 'This is a neat store.
I'm really glad you're here,'" said Gage.

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

Prayers for Terence McKenna (List subscribers forward news that the
Hawaiian "psychedelic philosopher" has been diagnosed with brain cancer and
is not expected to live more than 90 days. Think good thoughts for Terence at
2 pm Sunday, May 30, PDT, 9 pm GMT.)

Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 22:42:03 -0700
To: dpfca@drugsense.org
From: canorml@igc.apc.org (Dale Gieringer)
Subject: DPFCA: Prayers for Terence McKenna.
Sender: owner-dpfca@drugsense.org
Reply-To: canorml@igc.apc.org (Dale Gieringer)
Organization: DrugSense http://www.drugsense.org/dpfca/

Dear friends,

Have just received news that psychedelic philosopher Terence McKenna has
received a very serious diagnosis of advanced frontal lobe cancer. The
doctors expect that even with treatment Terence might only live another 90
days. The following announcement was made by a friend, and we are currently
trying to find out where the gatherings mentioned are being held. Would
encourage all of those who were touched by Terence's life to participate if
they can.

Sunday, May 30th, 2pm PACIFIC DAYLIGHT TIME (9pm GMT)

.. Send your thoughts to Terence in a massive community effort. Two big
gatherings in the Bay Area will be focusing as many positive thoughts as they
can gather to Terence and his family at this exact time. From where ever you
are at this time, add your thoughts into the fold.

Terence has said that he would welcome cards and messages of love or good
energy of all kinds sent his way for healing. The hospital address is:

Queen's Medical Hospital, 1301 Punchbowl Street,
Room 402, Bed #2, Honolulu, Hawaii 96813.

His e-mail address is syzygy@ultraconnect.com but am not sure that he can
read e-mail at this time. You can also read about some of his many
contributions to the psychedelic community at:

http://www.lycaeum.org/drugs/other/mckenna/

Highest regards,

Julia

Drug War or Drug Peace? Check out http://www.drugpeace.org

-----Original Message-----
From: Dale Gieringer (canorml@igc.apc.org)
To: Remembers@webtv.net (Remembers@webtv.net); julia@sacreddance.org
(julia@sacreddance.org)
Date: Thursday, May 27, 1999 8:41 AM
Subject: Fwd: Nov-LEADERS: Prayers for Terence McKenna.

>>>Reply-To: Nora Callahan (nora@november.org)
>>Organization: DrugSense http://www.drugsense.org/
>>
>>Hi all:
>>
>>This just in. Can anyone confirm?
>>
>>Nora
>>
>>From: John Humphrey (as684@lafn.org)
>>Organization: Los Angeles Freenet
>>To: "november-r@drugsense.org" (november-r@drugsense.org)
>>Subject: Nov-LEADERS: Prayers for Terence McKenna
>>Sender: owner-november-r@drugsense.org
>>Organization: November Coalition http://www.november.org/
>>
>>> As you may know, author, philosopher, and psychonaut
>>> Terence McKenna has been diagnosed with an advanced
>>> frontal lobe brain tumor. Medical prognosis is poor.
>>>
>>> He has asked that together we send him our kind thoughts,
>>> good vibes, and prayers this Sunday, May 31 at 2 pm
>>> Pacific Daylight Time (5 pm EDT, 10 pm GMT).
>>>
>>> Please also pass this message along as appropriate.

***

Dale Gieringer (415) 563-5858 // canorml@igc.apc.org
2215-R Market St. #278, San Francisco CA 94114

***

Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 02:22:27 -0700 (PDT)
From: Den de (dendecannabist@yahoo.com)
Subject: HT: Terence McKenna hospitalized...
To: Hemp Talk *cannabist (hemp-talk@hemp.net)
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net

Found this at the http://www.cannabis.com/boards and thought I'd pass
it on.

DdC

***

From: andy edmond

Greetings, sorry it has been so long since I've written to the Lycaeum
community - I've been busy with many other projects, but I needed to pass
some news along, and ask for your help.

I just got off the phone with Rob Montgomery who just delivered the
news that Terence McKenna, one of our community's most dynamic personalities,
is in the hospital after massive seizures on Saturday evening.

Today the diagnosis came in that Terence has very advanced frontal lobe
cancer. Without the sugar coating, the doctors expect that WITH treatment
Terence might live another 90 days. They are working on treatment plan as I
write, and we hope that his life might be sustained as long as modern
medicine will allow him to live with us. There are the worse case scenarios,
but the point of this mail is one of celebration, not of tragedy.

It is rare that someone delivered such bad news can have a community
of THOUSANDS of individuals support them through their trial. I would
like to invite all Lycaeum members, and those they know to do to things
to support this community member.

Sunday, May 30th, 2pm PACIFIC DAYLIGHT TIME (9pm GMT)

.. Send your thoughts in a massive community effort. Two big
gatherings in the bay area will be focusing as many positive thoughts
they can gather to Terence and his family at this exact time. From
where ever you are at this time, add your thoughts into the fold.

Soon as I have information on where you can send cards, flowers, and
gifts to Terence to support him, I will send a second email with that
information.

Also please review Terence's work on the Lycaeum at:

http://www.lycaeum.org/drugs/other/mckenna/

... where you can get to understand the implications of this man's
work on all our lives.

andy edmond

***

Andrew N. Edmond
Lycaeum Director
Nymserver Administrator
edmond@lycaeum.org
http://www.lycaeum.org/
http://www.nymserver.com/

***

Children of a future age,
reading this indignant page,
know that in a former time,
a path to love was thought a crime
- William Blake

***

Mind Food of the Gods

collected works by and about
Terence McKenna

http://nepenthes.lycaeum.org/McKenna/index.html

***

Peace not WoD!
Cannabis: Food, Fuel, Fiber, FARMaceuticals!
http://homepages.go.com/homepages/m/a/r/marthag1/ddc.htm

***

hemp-talk - hemp-talk@hemp.net is a discussion/information
list about hemp politics in Washington State. To unsubscribe, send
e-mail to majordomo@hemp.net with the text "unsubscribe hemp-talk".
For more details see http://www.hemp.net/lists.html

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

Hemp activist beaten by police (A terrorized list subscriber introduces and
forwards a disturbing first-person account from Ben Valdez, Jr. Valdez was
brutally beaten up May 20 by a squad of black-clad, ninja-masked police in
Salt Lake City, Utah, who broke down his door on the basis of a wrong-name
warrant.)

To: restore@crrh.org
Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 20:36:52 -0700
From: "Herb Hempstead" (highpreist@angelfire.com)
From: "CRRH mailing list" (restore@crrh.org)
Subject: Fwd: Hemp activist beaten by police

--------- Forwarded Message ---------

DATE: Thu, 27 May 1999 20:29:24
From: "Herb Hempstead" (highpreist@angelfire.com)
To: "Ben Valdez" (visnu@hotbot.com)
Ben Valdez Beating

Ben Valdez, Jr. is a hemp activist in Utah and a true American hero. He was
recently brutally beaten and tortured by a squad of black-clad, ninja masked
police in Salt Lake City, Utah. We don't' know who they are. We don't know
what agencies or police forces they represent. The police are acting as if it
were all a mistake. I have my doubts and some suspicions about the police's
intent for several reasons.

1. Every civil right that a human being has was crushed that night in Salt
Lake City by the heavy boot of a storm trooper. There have been many other
incidents reported to me, by victims of the local constabulary. So it could
have been a mistake, it's happened before.

2. It could just be a coincidence that they hit Ben Valdez, President of Mood
For A Day and Hemp Power Utah. It could be a coincidence. Or they may have
targeted Ben because of his out-spoken activism. His name is on the permit
that we bought in order to hold an "Anti-Police State Rally" at the State
Capitol prior to the beating incident. What are the odds of a hemp activist
being accidentally beaten and tortured by black-clad, ninja masked,
anonymous Task Force. These men are paid to be professionals. They gave him a
very professional beating. I personally saw his body, a day and a half after
the attack. He has bruises and scratches from head to toe. He has a boot
print-bruise on the left side of his back. Yes, this man was systematically
worked over by professionals. I was horrified at the sight of him. It's a
wonder that he wasn't killed. I suppose it could have been an accident or a
mistake. They may even try to claim that it was justified. They claim a lot
of things don't they? It could be a coincidence. Or, they may have shown
their true colors when they attacked the drum circle last month, and the
"Hempenator" this month.

3. Ben has been threatened by the police before this incident. SO HAVE
OTHERS. I, and several other Mood For a Day and Church of the Hemp Goddess
members have been threatened by these people in the past. I personally am
terrified for my life and the safety of my family. I'm not afraid of the
Mafia or gangs. I'm not afraid of Yugoslavia or Russia or China. I am afraid
of my government. Because I am the secretary and treasurer of Mood For A Day
and I'm the High Priest of the Hemp Goddess. I was threatened by a man who
identified himself as a Salt Lake County Sheriffs's Deputy, who promised to
give me "The Special Treatment". I also have been threatened by Salt Lake
City Policemen. These threats have been delivered in person and by email.
They say that they know where we live and what we drive. I'm a property
owner, will they beat me? Or kill me? Will they take my property with out
due process when they do come for me? Will they traumatize my children? Will
they verbally and emotionally abuse my wife and family?

4. We, Mood For A Day, recently won a lawsuit against Salt Lake County for
violating our free speech rights at our booth at the county fair. I believe
that Ben's beating was an escalation in a pattern of intimidation and abuse
directed toward Utah's only hemp activist organization. They may actually win
the "Drug War" but at what cost? We at Mood For A Day will continue to take
the moral "High Road" and we hope to eventually win the "Peace on Drugs" and
the "Peace on Hemp" and the "Peace on Medical marijuana". We will do this by
patiently and publicly telling people the truth about hemp and the truth
about Medical Cannabis and the truth about the police's war on the public at
large. I personally am willing to lay down my life in the name of personal
liberty. I may be closer to this than I realized. We, as a society must make
a choice: "Will we be a drug free society or will we be a free civilization
that values the individual's rights.

Will these "Peace Officer's" be brought to justice? Why are peace officers
allowed carry guns and night sticks? Why do officers of the law wear black
uniforms and wear black face masks? Why do "Peace Officers" need flak
jackets and automatic weapons? If drug abuse is a disease then why are people
punished for being ill? Why is America no longer Free?

Kindest Regards,

Herb Hempstead
The High priest of the Hemp Goddess

Here is Ben Valdez's account in his own words:

***

Date: Sun, 23 May 1999 23:54:25 -0700
From: "Ben Valdez" (visnu@hotbot.com)
Subject: Ben Valdez Beating
To: "Herb Hempstead" (highpreist@angelfire.com)

Thursday, 20 May, 1999
Approximately 10:00 PM

There was a loud bang at the door, and then there was a crash.
A battering ram broke the door, and caused it to fly open, missing
my daughter by 3 inches. My wife immediately went to her knees,
put her hands on her head, and asked for permission to get my daughter,
who had ran away in terror.

They yelled Police once. I never heard any of this, not the
yell, the crash of the door, not my daughters screams. I was oblivious of
this.

I was upstairs, asleep. I usually fall asleep around 8:00 PM
so I can be up at 3:30 AM for work. This night was a night like
all others, I thought as I shut my eyes, and slept.

When I opened my eyes again, there were people standing over
me. I could not tell you how many, but I acted immediately on instinct.
All I can remember was thinking, there are intruders in my home.
There are criminals in my home. I must save my and wife and daughter.
I rose and began to fight. I didn't know how many people were on me.
I wasn't even fully awake. Somehow I was dragged from my bed, beaten,
kicked down my stairs, (I still have the boot print on my back) and
eventually taken outside, face down on my porch. I tried to lift my
head but a boot ground it back into the cement.

"I can't breathe", I yelled.

"Wrong answer", I was told as my cheek bone became one with the pavement.

"Can I please Breathe"?

"Wrong Question", I was told by the boot at the back of my head.

"Please tell me what to say so I can say the right thing", I begged.

"May I please lift my head up and breathe" is what the boot told me.

"May I please lift my head and breathe" I repeated.

The boot stopped pushing my face into the cement and I tried
to lift my head. I had been beaten, my neck having broken my fall.
I was lucky my neck was not broken.

When I finally got a glimpse of the name POLICE on a helmet
or shirt or something, I though, the bad guys are wearing police clothing.

It wasn't until I was handcuffed and had my pockets searched
that I began to realize that this was indeed the Police.

The time that transpired, from the door being bashed, to me
being hand cuffed, was about 2 minutes of maximum time. At least from
my shaken perspective.

When I finally realized that the intruders who had dragged
me from my sleep, who brutalized me, making me believe that my family
was being murdered downstairs, were in fact Officers of the Peace,
I began to tell my body to relax, and go into physical submission.
I fought my adrenaline, and my instincts to protect my family.

One Officer asked me why I had stuck him. I told him, "I didn't know who
you were".

"We announced ourselves as we came in", he said.

I said, "I never heard you say anything, if I had, I would have never
resisted".

Then another officer came to me and asked me, "So, Jeremy, where are the
drugs".

I replied with, "My name is Not Jeremy, it is Ben Valdez. There
was a moment of panic for the police officers.

"What is the address here! What is the address here!" Was the echo
through my home.

I was then taken back inside, from the humiliation of my neighbors
witnessing a surreal scene of what must have appeared to be the
black clad gestapo looking for illegal Jews, and slumped me next to my
wife and child.

My daughter was still in shock, by the terrorist attack on
our happy lives, by jack-booted government thugs. I did what I could
to comfort her through the handcuffs and scrapes and bruises. It
was difficult to make her feel safe as Salt Lakes Finest trashed
my home in ninja styled masks and full combat gear.

After it had been established that they had the correct address,
they began to question me about my roommate. "Where is the cocaine,
who does he deal to, where is he now".

I responded with satisfactory answers to their questions. They
established that I was not Jeremy, (they apparently had no idea
what he looked like, or what part of the house he lived at).

As I was being questioned, the police went through the entire
house. They trashed every room in the house. A drug sniffing canine
also went through everything.

There was no cocaine found in my roommates room. He had one
and one quarter ounce of marijuana in his room and some paraphernalia.
My roommate claims that it helps him with his Tourettes Syndrome,
and I have seen and possess some research that backs his belief. He is
a Medical Cannabis user.

After the police had gone through my office, they discovered
a series of Cannabis related information. Everything from Hemp seed
nutrition to the Bill of Rights. I have been involved in the local
liberty movement concerning the Hemp issue.

I was then separated from my wife and child. Still in hand
cuffs, though slightly loosened by now, and was taken to the downstairs
bathroom.

I was asked about the literature I had and some Cannabis related
art. What my fascination with the plant was. Why I was fixated on the
Marijuana thing.

I replied that my concerns were not with Cannabis, but with
Liberty. That the Bill of Rights have all been violated by the War
on Drugs, and that the War on Drugs was an excuse to rob the people of
their basic human rights.

To my surprise and amazement I had a group of officers listening
to me. The original officer again asked me, "Yeah, but what I want
to know is, why do you have so much marijuana stuff on the walls and
in writing".

As I attempted to explain my reasons, it occurred to me that
if I had been LDS and had pictures of Joseph Smith on my walls there
would have been no questions. So I used that as an example.

I said, "Sir, when I was LDS, living in Texas, I was very passionate
about my religion and missionary work. I took many opportunities
to talk to people to convince them that Mormons were indeed Christian,
and that we were not their worst nightmare. That we are not the devil".

Another officer who had been listening said, "I think you are
the devil", and laughed and walked away to do other things.

I continues with the conversation with an Officer XXX. The
man who was in charge of the operation. After explaining that the
movement I am involved with is peace movement, he told me that they
were not in fact Police Officers, but Peace Officers.

I was nice, but in my traumatized mind, I was thinking, "If
this is peace, then this is no longer America. This is the Fourth Reich".

I then explained how I work to change laws and encourage other
not to break the laws but to also work to change them. Something
in the way the officers treated me had changed. There was more interest
in my philosophy than where Jeremy was.

One undercover narcotics officer came to me and asked about
my involvement in the City Drum Circle Committee. I explained that
we were working with City Administrators and the Police to communicate
a message to all who use the park to obey the rules of the park,
and to not use or bring legal or illegal drugs or alcohol to the park.

Then another officer came directly to me and said through his
mask, "I was one of the original arresting officers at the Park".

I was truly interested in what this hooded individual had to
say. I told him I would be anxious to hear what he had to say. He
said, "No one ever gets to hear our side of the story. We don't
have to privilege to speak our opinions all the time.

I sympathized with him and attempted to de-escalate a potentially
bad feeling. I asked the officer if I could tell him what my opinion was.
He said "go ahead".

I said, "My understanding of what happened at Liberty Park
on the 18th of April is as follows. A man sold some drugs to a police
officer. The officer attempted to make an arrest. The arrest was
interfered with by some people. The Officers felt threatened and
called for back up. The back up came in force and cleared the park.
Most people left, but a few resisted and stayed behind. They were
dealt with accordingly. The resisters had ample time to leave the
park. They saw the officers clearing the park from a distance. They
could have just left".

I think this surprised them. The officer then said, if you
are all about peace, why did they yell, Kill The Pigs, Stop The
Pigs? I told them we are working on this.

At one point. In the time we spent discussing the events at
Liberty Park, the officer who called me the Devil, came back and
said again, I really believe this guy is the Devil, and left again.

After the police, or peace officers, had gathered what evidence
they had, they cataloged it and finally let me out of the hand cuffs.
It was approximately 12:30. I had spent about 2 or 3 hours in cuffs.

As they left my home I found myself asking them all for their
attention, I felt compelled to say something, and what came out
of my mouth disgusted me and humiliated me even more.

I thanked the police officers for not killing me. For having
the wisdom to only rouse me from my sleep and beating me into
submission. I then shook every police hand and they left.

I collapsed, feeling gang raped. My life shattered. My vision
of what America is, was gone. I and my family still and will forever
deal with the day the stormtroopers invaded my home, and violated
us. My daughter fears the door that almost took her life. I still
see masked thugs pulling me from my security and violating my basic
human rights when I close my eyes.

When we have to stop at check points to make sure our papers
are in order, and drug sniffing dogs go through every car, we no
longer live in America, we live in a Police State.

When an informant can give unreliable tips and destroy people
lives, we no longer live in the Land of the Free, we live in a Police
State.

When a war, that can never be won, and has failed at every
level to reach its stated objective, a drug-free society, is allowed
to trash every one of the Bill of Rights, then we no longer have
Liberty.

We have a mockery. We have a Police State.

Ben Valdez Jr.

Husband, Father.

***

Forwarded by Herb Hempstead
Highpreist of the Hemp Goddess

Kindest Regards....

***

"Those who are willing to trade liberty for security, deserve neither."
Thomas Jefferson.

"God was the first stoner, that's why he's the most high"!
Tommy Chong (April 1999)

"The right to be left alone - the most comprehensive of rights,
and the right most valued by a free people."
- Justice Louis Brandeis, Olmstead v. U.S. (1928).

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

A Setback For Fetal Rights In Wisconsin Alcohol Case (The Chicago Tribune
says the Wisconsin 2nd District Court of Appeals on Wednesday reversed a
lower court and ruled that a woman who drank herself into a stupor in her
ninth month of pregnancy cannot be charged with attempted murder of her
fetus. The only state that criminalizes such behavior is South Carolina. In
1996, that state's Supreme Court upheld the child-neglect prosecution of a
woman who had used crack cocaine while pregnant. Courts in 21 other states
have rejected criminal prosecution of pregnant women for behavior that harms
their fetuses, but the U.S. Supreme Court has so far been silent on the
issue.)

Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 09:54:13 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US WI: A Setback For Fetal Rights In Wisconsin Alcohol Case
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Steve Young
Pubdate: Thu, 27 May 1999
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 1999 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact: tribletter@aol.com
Website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Forum: http://www.chicagotribune.com/interact/boards/
Author: Judy Peres

A SETBACK FOR FETAL RIGHTS IN WISCONSIN ALCOHOL CASE

In a legal battle that pitted the rights of pregnant women against those of
their unborn children, a Wisconsin appellate court ruled Wednesday that a
woman who drank herself into a stupor in her ninth month of pregnancy cannot
be charged with attempted murder of her fetus.

"We are persuaded that the term `human being' (as used in the relevant
criminal statutes) was not intended to refer to an unborn child and
that (the woman's) prenatal conduct does not constitute attempted
first-degree intentional homicide and first-degree reckless injury,"
the 2nd District Court of Appeals said in reversing a lower-court ruling.

Deborah Zimmerman, 37, of Franksville, Wis., was charged in 1996,
shortly after giving birth to a daughter. The newborn, who attorneys
said is now healthy and living with a foster family, suffered from low
birth weight and was found to have a blood-alcohol level of 0.199 percent.

Zimmerman's blood-alcohol level exceeded 0.3 percent at the time of
delivery, three times the legal standard for intoxication in Wisconsin.

At the hospital, according to prosecutors, Zimmerman reportedly told a
nurse, "I'm just going to go home and keep drinking and drink myself
to death and I'm going to kill this thing because I don't want it anyways."

Her lawyer, however, said she was not trying to harm the child.

The state appellate court's action is far from unique. Courts in 21
other states have rejected criminal prosecution of pregnant women for
behavior that harms their fetuses, said Priscilla Smith, deputy
director of litigation at the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy
in Washington.

The only state that criminalizes such behavior is South Carolina. In
1996, that state's Supreme Court upheld the child-neglect prosecution
of Cornelia Whitner, who had used crack cocaine while pregnant. The
court accepted the argument of state Atty. Gen. Charlie Condon that
Whitner's fetus was "a fellow South Carolinian" entitled to protection
even from its mother.

The U.S. Supreme Court has been silent on the issue, declining to hear
an appeal in the Whitner case. But in Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 decision
guaranteeing women a constitutional right to abortion, the justices
ruled that fetuses are not "persons."

Wisconsin recently became the third state, after Minnesota and South
Dakota, to allow judges to commit pregnant substance abusers for
inpatient treatment. "But they can't send them to jail," Smith said.

Smith acted as lead counsel for Zimmerman, who remained in jail while
lawyers battled the legality of the charges against her.

The state of Wisconsin had argued that Zimmerman should be prosecuted
for attempted murder based on its "born alive" law. The law says a
person can be charged with murder if he harms a pregnant woman and if
her fetus subsequently is born alive but then dies. Prosecutors argued
that the law should be extended to attempted murder if a fetus is born
with injuries but survives.

The appellate court, in Wednesday's decision, said that was not the
legislature's intent.

The decision was supported by public health organizations,
abortion-rights advocates and civil liberties groups.

Doctors' organizations, including the American Medical Association,
oppose punitive policies against pregnant women who abuse drugs or
alcohol because they are concerned that people would be discouraged
from seeking prenatal care altogether, or wouldn't tell their doctors
the truth about their behavior.

Civil libertarians argue that such laws violate the constitutional
rights of pregnant women. As the appellate court stated Wednesday, if
Zimmerman could be prosecuted for drinking, "a woman could risk
criminal charges for any perceived self-destructive behavior during
her pregnancy," including smoking, excessive exercise or dieting.

Even some anti-abortion groups oppose criminalizing harmful behavior
by pregnant women, for fear such legislation would prompt women to
have abortions rather than face prosecution.

Courts and legislatures across the country have confronted the
question of whether, and when, states may restrict women's behavior to
protect their unborn children.

In the mid-1980s a California woman, Pamela Rae Stewart, was jailed
for contributing to the death of her newborn son. Prosecutors argued
she withheld medical care from the unborn child by failing to obey a
doctor's orders to stay off her feet and refrain from taking drugs and
having sex with her husband during her pregnancy. But a municipal
judge later ruled Stewart had committed no crime.

Three years ago, Florida's Supreme Court ruled that Kawana Ashley, a
pregnant woman who had shot herself in the stomach, could not be
charged under a homicide statute.

In Illinois, the Winnebago County state's attorney tried to bring
manslaughter charges in 1989 against Melanie Green of Rockford, who
the prosecutor said had caused the death of her 2-day-old daughter by
taking illegal drugs during her pregnancy. But a grand jury refused to
indict.

It's not a crime in Illinois for a pregnant woman to harm her unborn
child, but state law does protect fetuses from harmful actions by others.

A 1986 law allows criminal charges to be brought for death or injury
to a fetus. Under that law, a driver may be prosecuted for reckless
homicide if he broadsides the car of a pregnant woman and causes her
to miscarry, even if she isn't otherwise hurt.

Another Wisconsin law also is under judicial scrutiny this week. A
trial to determine the constitutionality of the state's so-called
partial-birth abortion law is scheduled to begin Thursday in U.S.
District Court in Madison.

The law, which calls for mandatory life imprisonment for abortion
providers, went into effect last May. It was immediately challenged by
several doctors and clinics, who argued the statute is
unconstitutionally vague and appeared to criminalize all abortions,
not just late-term procedures.

District Court Judge John Shabaz refused to block implementation of
the law, prompting Wisconsin physicians to stop performing all
abortions for several days. The federal Court of Appeals in Chicago
subsequently reversed Shabaz and enjoined the law, pending trial.

Lawyers for the clinics have promised to return to the Court of
Appeals if Shabaz rules for the state and lifts the injunction.

Similar legal battles are going on in other states, including
Illinois. Twenty-eight states have passed laws banning what they call
partial-birth abortions. But because they are so broadly worded,
courts in 19 states have blocked or severely limited their
implementation.

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

Silver Softens Drug Law Stance (The Times Union, in Albany, New York, says
Sheldon Silver, the Democratic Speaker of the New York state Assembly, seems
to be backing away from his previous opposition to reforming the state's
Rockefeller-era mandatory-minimum sentencing guidelines for drug offenders.
However, Silver said at a closed-door meeting of his Democratic conference
earlier this week that he was opposed to Gov. George Pataki's proposal,
which links reform to the elimination of parole for all felons.)

Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 12:18:09 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US NY: Silver Softens Drug Law Stance
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Capital Region NORML
Pubdate: Thu 27 May 1999
Source: Times Union (NY)
Copyright: 1999, Capital Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation
Contact: tuletters@timesunion.com
Address: Box 15000, Albany, NY 12212
Feedback: http://www.timesunion.com/react/
Website: http://www.timesunion.com/
Forum: http://www.timesunion.com/react/forums/
Author: Lara Jakes, Staff Writer

SILVER SOFTENS DRUG LAW STANCE

Albany -- Assembly Speaker Has Opened Door Ever So Slightly To Revision Of
Tough Rockefeller-Era Penalties, Democrats Say

Under fire from his Assembly membership, Speaker Sheldon Silver is backing
away from an apparent stand against reforming the state's Rockefeller Drug
Laws, officials said Wednesday.

Silver said at a closed-door meeting of his Democratic conference earlier
this week that he was opposed only to Gov. George Pataki's proposal -- which
links reform of the tough laws to the elimination of parole for all felons.
But according to several legislators at the meeting, Silver refused to say
how far he would agree to scale back the drug laws -- or if he would at all.

That appears to be a turnaround from Silver's position a week ago, when his
spokeswoman said the Assembly leadership worried its members would appear
"soft on crime" in the November 2000 election if they voted for reforms this
year.

"The speaker's statement was terse to the point of saying, 'We're not doing
the governor's Rockefeller Drug Law reforms,' but I wanted to know if he
could clarify the broader point," said Assemblyman Alexander "Pete" Grannis,
D-Manhattan, who questioned Silver at the meeting of the Democratic
conference Monday. "He would only say we're not doing the governor's bill.
... If by that answer, we aren't going to engage in any way, at any level,
on reform of the bill, I don't know. We're not talking about the issue. I
don't know where we are."

Silver's spokeswoman, Patricia Lynch, refused to comment on the meeting but
said that a story last week in The New York Times on the governor's reform
proposals was "absolutely accurate." The article reported that the Assembly
leadership "appears unwilling to support other such efforts this year."

Assembly Democrats, who have for years pushed reforms to the Rockefeller
laws, were infuriated. Under the laws, enacted in 1973, a person with no
prior record and no history of violence who is convicted of a single sale of
two ounces or possession of four ounces of a narcotic, faces a mandatory
minimum sentence of 15 years to life. No other state has such a tough law,
nor does the federal government.

Lawmakers and advocates had hoped that 1999 -- an off-election year -- would
be ripe for reform, and were encouraged when Pataki and Chief Judge Judith
S. Kaye both called for change in the measures. Moreover, they assumed that
if any legislative body would balk at reforms, it would be the
Republican-controlled Senate, which has long taken a conservative stance on
curbing crime.

Still, Silver's short explanation of his views at the conference meeting
gave some Assembly members a glimmer of hope that reforms would be at least
discussed this year.

"I think the door is still open -- albeit faintly," said Assemblyman
Jeffrion Aubry, D-Queens, who is author of a bill that would repeal the
prison sentences imposed under the Rockefeller laws. "What is needed to
build consensus is an appropriate bill, if mine is not. We will work toward
that."

Few Assembly Democrats disagree with Silver's position that Pataki's
proposal does not go far enough in reforming the Rockefeller laws to
justify eliminating parole for all felony offenders. Pataki's plan would
allow appeals courts to cut minimum prison terms by a third for first-time
drug transporters, or "mules," and expose drug kingpins to a mandatory
15-year-to-life term.

In exchange, however, the governor would demand "determinate sentencing" --
specific prison terms for specific felonies. That's widely regarded as too
tough of a measure to be a fair trade.

But Pataki's reform proposal -- the first to offer major changes by a
governor since the laws were enacted -- also is considered by many lawmakers
to be an opening stake for future negotiations. It "at least had the
potential for starting a dialogue," Grannis said.

How far Pataki would be willing to compromise is unclear. "Certainly he's
shown that he's willing to work with responsible individuals who have
sensible ideas to reforming criminal justice" issues, said Pataki spokesman
Patrick McCarthy.

Polls indicate that only about a third of voters statewide would consider
their lawmakers "soft on drugs" if prison terms are scaled back. But one
advocate warned Wednesday that voters would react more negatively to their
elected officials if no action is taken to reform the Rockefeller laws.

"No one has really stood up to the speaker and said, 'We believe this should
be done this session, and we should put a proposal forward,'" said Terri
Derikart, spokeswoman for the New York chapter of Families Against Mandatory
Minimums. "The family members I spoke to (about Silver's refusal to take up
reforms) were extremely disappointed, disillusioned and depressed. They were
outraged, and said they'd be calling their assemblyman."

Grannis agreed.

"Lots of people in many parts of the state think this is an important issue
for us to get involved in, and are not at all fearful of us doing the right
thing as being construed that we are 'soft on crime,'" he said. "If we feel
constrained to do it in an off (election) year, and won't do it in an
election year, my guess is that it's doomed."

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

Production, Analysis And Distribution Of Cannabis And Marijuana Cigarettes (A
news release from the National Institute on Drug Abuse website says NIDA is
"soliciting proposals from qualified organizations having the capability to
grow, harvest, extract, analyze, store and manufacture marijuana cigarettes,
and distribute cannabis, and marijuana cigarettes to NIH grantees and other
researchers to support basic and clinical research." RFP No. N01DA-9-7078
will be available electronically on or about June 14 at the NIDA website.)

From: "Rick Bayer" (ricbayer@home.com)
To: "Rick Bayer" (ricbayer@home.com)
Subject: non government cannabis growing
Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 11:53:48 -0700

Dear OMMA supporters

Anyone interested? My understanding is that the current federal mj
cigarettes are now around 4% THC. I am glad that they may let private
industry show that they can produce a better medical product. Now we
need to get it rescheduled and in pharmacies.

This data below is from
http://www.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/not99-099.html and thanks
to "you know who you are" for the tip.

Rick

Richard E. Bayer, MD
6800 SW Canyon Drive
Portland, OR 97225
503-292-1035 (voice)
503-297-0754 (fax)
mailto:ricbayer@home.com

***

PRODUCTION, ANALYSIS AND DISTRIBUTION OF CANNABIS AND MARIJUANA CIGARETTES

Release Date: May 27, 1999

RFP AVAILABLE: N01DA-9-7078

P.T.

National Institute on Drug Abuse

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is soliciting proposals from
qualified organizations having the capability to grow, harvest, extract,
analyze, store and manufacture marijuana cigarettes, and distribute cannabis,
and marijuana cigarettes to NIH grantees and other researchers to support
basic and clinical research. The offeror must possess the necessary field or
growing facility, laboratory space, instrumentation and experience to conduct
the work. Appropriate security approved by the Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) for growing, and manufacturing of marijuana cigarettes,
storage facilities and DEA Schedule I registration for marijuana and THC are
essential. Source information previously submitted to this office or any
other office will not be considered. Therefore, the interested organizations
must submit organizational data and background, qualifications of
professional personnel, and specific experience in the area of this project.
It is anticipated that a five-year incrementally funded completion contract
will be awarded through this procurement with option quantities for
additional growing and manufacturing. RFP No. N01DA-9-7078 will be available
electronically on or about June 14, 1999 and may be accessed through the NIDA
website at URL: http://www.nida.nih.gov/RFP/RFPList.html. Responses to the
RFP will be due approximately 45 calendar days thereafter. Please note that
the RFP for this acquisition will be issued in a streamlined format which
will include only the Work Statement, Deliverables and Reporting
Requirements, Special Requirements and Mandatory Qualifications, Technical
Evaluation Criteria, and other necessary Proposal Preparation Instructions.
All information required for the submission of a proposal will be contained
in or accessible through the electronic RFP package. Any responsible offeror
may submit a proposal which will be considered by the Government.

Point of Contact:	Kenneth E. Goodling, Contracting Officer
National Institute on Drug Abuse, NIH
Contracts Management Branch, OPRM
6001 Executive Blvd., Room 3105, MSC 9543
Bethesda, Maryland 20892-9543
Electronic Mail Address: kg25d@nih.gov
Telephone: (301) 443-6677
Fax: (301) 443-7595

***

Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 17:25:34 -0800
To: "DRCTalk Reformers' Forum" (drctalk@drcnet.org)
From: Dave Fratello (amr@lainet.com)
Subject: NIDA RFP for pvt. mj sources
Sender: owner-drctalk@drcnet.org

The NIDA RFP for private marijuana farming (text below) & cigarette
manufacture almost seems like real news.

It even comes on the heels of the government's newly professed openness to
making research marijuana available for private studies.

It would be a great double-whammy to see the gov't expanding the possible
sources for marijuana for such studies. NIDA's spokesman even joked last
week that the agency "isn't known for growing primo stuff." Maybe someone
else could. (Okay, of course someone else could.)

But check out the fine print of the RFP. Among the requirements, a grant
applicant must have:

* field for growing
* laboratory
* EXPERIENCE
* DEA-approved security
* DEA Sch. I license ("essential")

Seems like a startup would have a pretty hard time demonstrating all these
factors, and could have the application discarded solely on that basis.

Oh, and the application is due in a couple months. Good luck getting your
DEA approval before then.

There is a reference within the text to this being a 5-year grant. Odds are
this is a once-every-five-years pro forma process for U-Mississippi to get
their grant renewed.

Is there a good way to call NIDA on the apparent openness of the process,
and get a real competing proposal in?

- Dave Fratello

***

Date: Sat, 29 May 1999 10:59:46 -0700
To: Dave Fratello (amr@lainet.com)
From: canorml@igc.apc.org (Dale Gieringer)
Subject: DPFCA: Re: ARO: NIDA - grant req. for mj grows
Cc: dpfca@drugsense.org, rickmaps@aol.com
Organization: DrugSense http://www.drugsense.org/dpfca/

Dave -

I think you're right that this is just an RFP to renew El Sohly's grant.
- Dale

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

Special Interest: Fighting Spirits (The Washington Post says the White House
drug czar, Barry R. McCaffrey, has betrayed his own congressional allies and
scuttled his own reform proposal, which would have allowed part of his $1
billion anti-drug advertising budget to target alcohol abuse. U.S.
representatives Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif., and Frank R. Wolf, R-Va.,
sponsored such legislation at his request. Studies by McCaffrey's office
claim alcohol is a "gateway drug" leading to illicit drug use, and the bill
had the support of the American Medical Association and the Center for
Science in the Public Interest. However, the liquor lobby rallied the
opposition, which now includes the Partnership for a Drug-Free America and
McCaffrey's own office, which circulated a paper on Capitol Hill warning of
the high costs of an anti-alcohol campaign. McCaffrey spokesman Bob Weiner
said McCaffrey would now support the amendment only if it were changed to
give him authority for such ads without mandating them.)

Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 08:06:24 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: Special Interest: Fighting Spirits
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Rob Ryan
Pubdate: Thurs, 27 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/
Author: Bill McAllister

SPECIAL INTEREST: FIGHTING SPIRITS

Sometimes it's those little issues that can spark the most spirited
lobbying.

Just ask Reps. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.) and Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.).
After they heard Clinton drug czar Barry R. McCaffrey bemoaning his lack of
authority to include warnings about alcohol abuse in his office's anti-drug
ads, they agreed to help.

No sooner had they offered legislation that would give him the authority for
such ads than the liquor lobby descended. "Your support for this amendment
would make the drug czar's position untenable and reduce his ability to wage
the war on drugs," David K. Rehr, senior vice president of the National Beer
Wholesalers Association, told Roybal-Allard in a memo.

An aide to former representative Vin Weber (R-Minn.), Rehr has led the fight
against the legislation, arguing that McCaffrey's "limited" funds should be
devoted to entirely to anti-drug ads. "This is being led by people who are
attempting to tie beer as close as they can to drugs," he said. "It ain't
all the same."

Wolf countered that studies by McCaffrey's office show that alcohol is a
"gateway drug" that often is a first step toward illicit drugs. "I'm not
anti-beer," said the Northern Virginia lawmaker, who admits surprise at the
fierce opposition his amendment has drawn. A coalition of health groups,
including the American Medical Association and the Center for Science in the
Public Interest, is backing the Roybal-Allard-Wolf amendment. It is opposed
by the Wine Institute and the Distilled Spirits Council, but Rehr's
biggest - and most surprising - allies are the Partnership for a Drug-Free
America, a private group that supports the czar's programs, and McCaffrey's
own office, which circulated a paper on Capitol Hill warning of the high
costs of launching an anti-alcohol campaign.

McCaffrey spokesman Bob Weiner said McCaffrey now supports the amendment,
provided it gives him permissive authority for such ads and does not mandate
them. Rehr said he was taken aback by the czar's change and promised to
fight the legislation if it clears the House Appropriations Committee next
month. "It's the wrong language on the wrong bill at the wrong time," he
said.

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

Canada Might OK Medical Marijuana (The Associated Press says a measure
calling for the legalization of pot for medical reasons passed Tuesday night
in the Canadian House of Commons.)

Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 17:00:03 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Canada: Canada Might Ok Medical Marijuana
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: AOLNews
Pubdate: Thu, 27 May 1999
Source: Associated Press
Copyright: 1999 Associated Press

CANADA MIGHT OK MEDICAL MARIJUANA

OTTAWA - Canada's federal government has moved one step closer
to permitting the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

A measure calling for the legalization of pot for medical reasons
passed Tuesday night in the House of Commons.

The bill motion, tabled by an opposition party, calls on the
government to ``take steps immediately'' to develop clinical trials,
guidelines for its use and a safe supply of marijuana for people who
need it for medical reasons.

Victims of AIDS and cancer have been lobbying for years for the right
to use marijuana as a pain killer and appetite stimulant.

In March, Health Minister Allan Rock promised clinical trials into the
medicinal use of marijuana.

In the United States, the Clinton administration released new
guidelines May 21 to ease the availability of marijuana for medical
research, a move officials believe will quicken the pace of studies
into the drug's possible beneficial uses.

The new guidelines, ``an extension of an existing process,'' will make
it easier for academic researchers to obtain samples of research-grade
marijuana grown by the government, said Campbell Gardett, a spokesman
for the Department of Health and Human Services.

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

Marijuana Legalization Too Late For Local Man (The Sudbury Star, in Ontario,
describes the prosecution for possession and trafficking of Barry Burkholder
of Chelmsford, who says he needs the healing power of cannabis to deal with
the pain of chronic arthritis and various ailments associated with hepatitis
C. On Wednesday, the federal government moved a step closer to legalizing the
use of marijuana for medical purposes, after a Bloc Quebecois motion calling
for the legalization of pot for medical reasons passed Tuesday night in the
House of Commons.)

Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 17:21:17 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Canada: MMJ: Marijuana Legalization Too Late For Local Man
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Lynn Harichy
Pubdate: Thu, 27 May 1999
Source: Sudbury Star (Canada)
Copyright: 1999 The Sudbury Star
Contact: editorial@siteseer.ca
Address: 33 MacKenzie St., Sudbury, Ont., P3C 4Y1
Fax: (705) 674-6834
Website: http://www.thesudburystar.com
Contact: sudburystar@siteseer.ca
Author: Rob O'Flanagan

MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION TOO LATE FOR LOCAL MAN

A Chelmsford man is up on charges of possession and trafficking in a
substance he calls a painkiller. That substance is marijuana.

Barry Burkholder, 34, says he needs the healing power of cannabis to deal
with the pain of chronic arthritis and with various ailments associated with
recently-diagnosed hepatitis C.

Burkholder says he contracted hepatitis C 14 years ago from an unsterilized
tattoo needle.

Sometimes his pain is so bad, he says, he cannot turn a door knob. His
seven-year-old daughter, Nicole, has to help him up from the floor when he
falls.

Doctors continue to prescribe drugs which Burkholder believes are addictive
and dangerous to his malfunctioning liver. The one thing he feels good
about taking, and which makes him feel good, is pot.

On Wednesday, the federal government moved a step closer to legalizing the
use of marijuana for medical purposes. A Bloc Quebecois motion calling for
the legalization of pot for medical reasons passed Tuesday night in the
House of Commons.

The motion calls on the government to "take steps immediately" to develop
clinical trials, guidelines for its use and a safe supply of marijuana for
people who need it for medical reasons.

But Burkholder is not optimistic.

"If it passes and becomes law, that will be great," said Burkholder, whose
fingers are permanently bent from a debilitating strain of arthritis which
is hereditary.

"But they're not moving fast enough. (Health Minister) Allan Rock keeps
talking about doing trials, but trials have already been done. There is
already sufficient proof that cannabis helps people deal with their pain.
The pot takes the pain from the arthritis away. It helps me sleep and it
reduces depression. My liver can't take these prescription drugs, but I
can't legally use marijuana."

"And if I can't, my death will be slow and painful. Now, I have this
criminal charge against me, and my children are about to lose their daddy
over it."

Following Tuesday's vote, Rock said he would move quickly to publicize the
government's plan for legalizing pot for medical reasons.

Burkholder says he will apply for permission to use the drug. To date, two
people in Canada can grow and use marijuana without being charged. They are
Jim Wakeford, an Ontario man living with AIDS, and Terry Parker, a Toronto
man who has epilepsy.

"I've been charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking," says
Burkholder. "But pot is my medicine. I don't traffic in the stuff, I smoke
it to relieve my pain."

With files from the Canadian Press

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

Delay Burns Pot Smoker (The London Free Press, in Ontario, says the Canadian
government may be a step closer to permitting the use of marijuana for
medical purposes, but multiple sclerosis patient Lynn Harichy isn't holding
her breath. "I've heard Allan Rock make promises before," said Harichy, who
is facing trial Sept. 27 on a charge of possessing marijuana.)

Date: Sat, 29 May 1999 10:30:17 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Canada: Delay Burns Pot Smoker
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Lynn Harichy
Pubdate: Thu, 27 May 1999
Source: London Free Press (Canada)
Copyright: 1999 The London Free Press a division of Sun Media Corporation.
Contact: letters@lfpress.com
Website: http://www.canoe.ca/LondonFreePress/home.html
Forum: http://www.lfpress.com/londoncalling/SelectForum.asp
Author: Christine Dirks, Free Press Reporter

DELAY BURNS POT SMOKER

The federal government may be a step closer to permitting the use of
marijuana for medical purposes but advocate Lynn Harichy isn't holding her
breath.

"I've heard Allan Rock make promises before," said Harichy, 38. "People
want it legalized now. They're suffering. They don't need years of tests
and studies."

Health Minister Rock has asked government researchers for a plan on
legalizing marijuana for medicinal use before the House breaks in June.

Harichy has multiple sclerosis and says she smokes pot several times a day
to relieve symptoms.

"A part of me says, 'Yes, this is great. The government is finally going to
stop treating people who are sick as criminals.' Another part says, 'Wait
and see.'"

Without the pot she can't control her shaking, hold on to things properly
or walk straight, Harichy said.

People who need pot for medical reasons should be able to get it from a
pharmacy, she said.

Harichy is facing trial Sept. 27 for one charge of possession of marijuana.
The charge was laid Sept. 15, 1997, when Harichy lit up a joint on the
steps of the London police station. She said it was an act of civil
disobedience.

***

Note: Our newshawk and activist, Lynn Harichy, has had many news stories
about her published, of which 71 are in our news archives. The story above
says "Harichy is facing trial Sept. 27 for one charge of possession of
marijuana. The charge was laid Sept. 15, 1997, when Harichy lit up a joint
on the steps of the London police station. She said it was an act of civil
disobedience." For Lynn, this has never been just an act of civil
disobedience, but an act with the goal of mounting a Constitutional
Challenge under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Lynn and I sat together in the London court room in 1997 when judge J.F.
McCart denied the Constitutional Challenge in the Chris Clay trial. Judge
McCart stated that the results may well have been different had the case
been about medical use. This Lynn saw as an invitation, which she took at
the local police station some weeks later. Her lawyer is Osgoode Hall law
professor and constitutional expert Alan Young, who defends similar cases,
as shown by the over 250 items mentioning him in our archives.

Readers who would like to chat with Lynn may find her in the MAP CHAT room
most Saturday and Sunday evenings from about 9:00 p.m. Eastern time at:
http://www.mapinc.org/chat/ and some photos of Lynn with the media at her
first court appearance are at: http://www.drugsense.org/lynn/

Richard Lake
[MAP] Sr. Editor

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

Southern Air Force Report Details Bleak Conditions At Ecuador Base (Inside
the Pentagon says a military base at Manta, on the Pacific coast in Ecuador,
that the United States wants to develop into a "forward operating location"
for U.S. counterdrug forces is in bleak condition. The site must undergo
extensive repairs and improvements if it is going to host U.S. forces even on
a temporary basis, according to a May 10 assessment by an officer in the U.S.
Southern Command's Air Force component. The report recommends that, for the
time being, Manta should be used only if "absolutely necessary.")

Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 01:23:24 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Southern Air Force Report Details Bleak Conditions At Ecuador
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Isenberg, David
Pubdate: Thu, 27 May 1999
Source: Inside the Pentagon
Page: 1
Address: 1225 Jefferson Davis Hwy #1400, Arlington, VA.
Author: Elaine M. Grossman

SOUTHERN AIR FORCE REPORT DETAILS BLEAK CONDITIONS AT ECUADOR BASE

Site Judged Unready For U.S Force Visits

A military base in Ecuador the United States wants to develop into a
"forward operating location" for U.S. counterdrug forces is in bleak
condition and must undergo extensive repairs and improvements before
it is ready to host U.S. forces even on a temporary basis, according
to a recent assessment authored by an officer in the U.S. Southern
Command's Air Force component.

The May 10 report, reviewed by Inside the Pentagon, pertains to
conditions at an Ecuadorian military base at Manta, on the Pacific
coast of the South American nation. The United States on April 1
signed an interim agreement with Ecuador that will allow U.S. military
forces to use the site on an "expeditionary" basis through the end of
the year (ITP, April 8, p21). Meanwhile, bilateral negotiations are
ongoing on a proposed long-term agreement that would allow continued
U.S. military access at this forward operating location, or FOL.

Problems plaguing Manta range from runways so dilapidated that they
are unusable by military aircraft to lax safety standards and
extremely limited supplies of electricity and water. Rectifying the
most serious problems will require at least six months, at which time
"limited" operations by Navy P-3C maritime patrol aircraft and Air
Force C-130 tactical airlifters can be conducted, the report states.
But it will be two years before a critical platform in the war against
drugs -- the Air Force E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System
aircraft -- can operate out of Manta, according to the assessment.

Manta is one of three FOLs the U.S. Southern Command has pursued in
order to replace the access to the region afforded until recently by
Howard AFB in Panama. With all U.S. bases in Panama closing by the end
of the year, SOUTHCOM has sought to station forces at and operate out
of the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba and Curacao, in addition to
Manta. SOUTHCOM also hopes to eventually establish a fourth FOL at
Liberia, Costa Rica.

The Manta location alone, though, was found earlier this year by a
site survey to need such substantial modifications that it may eat up
at least twice the $50 million in funds budgeted for start-up at all
three initial FOLs (ITP, April 8, p1). Each of the two Caribbean
islands was judged by the military site surveyors to require about $50
million in near-term improvements.

On April 16, Defense Secretary William Cohen issued a memo stating the
Pentagon "is fully committed to ensuring that necessary steps are
taken to bring the FOLs to full operational status" (ITP, April 22,
p1).

At Manta, those steps may be a bit more extensive than Cohen imagined.
Among the obstacles documented in the new report are:

"Concrete is severely deteriorating" at the Manta airfield, and debris
that is dangerous for aircraft "is abundant in the first 500-1,000
feet of the runway," according to the report. "Tennis-ball-size bits
of concrete [are] lying about in places."

"An eroded ditch over three feet deep runs just along the runway
edge," reads the assessment. "Overgrown with grass, it is just one
such obscured detriment to airfield operations."

The 1998 El Nino rains wreaked havoc on the airfield, with one end of
the runway underwater for three months last year, the officer reports.
The runway still appears to have water problems; "in one place,"
according to the assessment, "drainage seems to be seeping from under
the runway itself."

"Lighting is substandard" at the airfield, according to the report. At
the same time, "power cables for runway and taxiway edge lighting are
not buried, but run above ground over and along the taxiways. Aircraft
repeatedly run over them."

The "runway was recently painted, but paint is not reflective and
would be of little use at night or during periods of inclement weather."

"Trash abounds on the airfield," the report continues. "For example,
paint cans and lids from the recent painting effort were simply thrown
off to the side of the runway. Safety folks estimate there are at
least three truckloads of trash littering the field, creating a
substantial FOD [foreign object debris] hazard."

The airfield was also found to have few directional signs or markers.
"You have to be familiar with the airfield to know exactly where you
are or where you are going," according to the report. "This could be a
problem for transient crews, especially at night."

"Base power is commercially produced hydroelectricity," the report
states. "During dry periods, electricity is rationed to as little as
two hours each day. The base has an emergency internal power supply,
but it is broken down and cables are deteriorating, so it doesn't
work. If it did, it would not cover added U.S. power needs when our
facilities are constructed." As a result, the United States will have
to build a power facility at the base, the officer concludes.

"Base water is non-potable and only provides 50 percent of present
demand," the report states. "We will have to build a water plant to
make up for increased U.S. demand and provide water that is potable."

"Cost factors for major construction projects are not readily
available," the report reads. "Labor costs seem to be ridiculously
low; however, that is based on local unskilled labor with a reputation
for poor workmanship."

Currently, firefighting capabilities at the base must be limited to
P-3 operations, and could not handle larger aircraft like the E-3
AWACS. But "even for limited ops, we will be operating at increased
risk in the event of a fire or emergency landing," the officer finds.
"Firefighters have no breathing devices or other gear that would allow
them to assist aircrew members trying to escape a burning aircraft. In
fact, local firefighters admit they have no [intention] of getting
close to a burning aircraft."

Manta's air traffic control tower "is only manned during daylight
hours, although the field is operational 24 hours [a] day. Manning
consists of one individual working 12-hour shifts. . . . All
controllers have only the most rudimentary understanding of English.
Their ability to handle an emergency situation is doubtful."

The air traffic control tower itself is "antiquated," writes the
officer. "Visibility is degraded by dirty/scratched plexiglass and a
shading that was applied to the windows years ago, but is now
deteriorating."

Security at the Manta airfield is plentiful, but has notable gaps,
according to the report. "The airfield is fenced, but the fence does
not encircle the airfield," the report reads. "Roads from various
points on the base spill onto the airfield. These are unmarked and
unguarded." The officer notes that the "easy access to the runway is
not just a people problem. Domestic animals, mostly dogs and cats from
the housing area, freely roam the airfield."

Other wildlife also abounds and poses potentially serious risks to
aircraft. "Bird activity is horrendous," the report observes. Cannons
to scare them off were not operating during the days the officer spent
on base. "There's a garbage dump less than half a mile from the
airfield that adds to some of the attraction" -- for the birds, that
is, reports the officer. But the "greatest draw" for birds is the
refuse left behind by local fishermen. "The catch is cleaned and the
remains are dumped into the ocean to wash up on shore. . . . It is not
unusual to see 100 vultures circling the airfield or alighting on the
runway/taxiway at any given time."

If life on base at Manta sounds dicey, the situation outside the gates
may be downright life-threatening. "Traffic safety is unheard of,
driving techniques are aggressive, and roads are abysmal," the report
states. "Off-base medical care is presently substandard and should be
avoided if at all possible," according to the assessment. One U.S.
military physician visited the downtown Manta emergency room, "and in
the short time there saw a gunshot victim, a stabbing victim, and two
near fatalities from a car accident. He assessed the care they
received as dismal."

The officer notes in the report that "while many border on the
trivial, there are enough minor problems to build a chain of events
that could result in a mishap."

Although there is some pressure on the Navy from SOUTHCOM to begin
implementing the interim agreement soon by initiating flights into
Manta, the Southern Air Forces officer writing the May 10 report
advises otherwise.

It will take about six months to improve the airfield and the office
space for military personnel that will manage U.S. operations at the
base, according to the report. "Therefore, I recommend we suspend any
DOD air activity from Manta until roughly Nov. '99," states the
officer in the report. "U.S. Navy personnel recommend Guayaquil as a
good interim P-3 operating location until Manta is ready," the report
adds, referring to Ecuador's largest city, located south of Manta.

Defense officials say SOUTHCOM Commander-in-Chief Gen. Charles Wilhelm
is pressing the Navy to begin P-3 expeditionary visits to Manta
beginning in June. "If the CINC insists on using Manta [before
November] despite the many problems," according to the report, "I
recommend deployments be limited to one to two days in duration and
only when driven by the highest-priority missions."

The report notes that Curacao and Aruba boast modern and
well-maintained facilities. "Manta, on the other hand, is a more
remote location that is suffering from years of neglect and nature's
abuses. We cannot dismiss that reality with a wave of the hand, and no
amount of money can reduce the time required to get things up to
speed," according to the assessment.

For the time being, Manta should only be used if absolutely necessary,
the report recommends. "Mission requirements will need to outweigh the
substantial risk until we can correct the deficiencies that exist,"
the report states.

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

Court Overturns Drug Conviction / Marijuana Advocates Welcome Court Ruling
(Two stories from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation say Judge Robert
Ducker, citing medical reasons, has ordered that no conviction be recorded in
the case of Lynette Whalen, a Byron Bay woman with lymphatic cancer. Four
months ago she was convicted and fined $1,000 for growing seven cannabis
plants. Patient advocates say it's not unprecedented.)

Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 16:01:21 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Australia: MMJ: Transcript: Court Overturns Drug Conviction
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Skull, Temple of
Pubdate: Thu, 27 May 1999
Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Australia)
Copyright: 1999 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Contact: comments@your.abc.net.au
Website: http://www.abc.net.au/
Authors: Paul Kielly and Helen Merkell

Report: 7:54am AEST
COURT OVERTURNS DRUG CONVICTION

PAUL KIELLY: A Byron Bay woman's had a four month old Cannabis conviction
overturned in the Lismore district court on medical grounds.

40 year old Lynette Whalen says she uses the drug to treat painful symptoms
of her lymphatic cancer, which she was diagnosed with four years ago.

Four months ago Byron Bay Magistrate Pat Caldwell ordered her to pay a
thousand dollar fine over seven plants Police found at ther home.

Judge Robert Ducker upheld an appeal this week in Lismore, finding the
offence proven but that no conviction would be recorded.

Ms. Whalen says the state Government should follow the lead of other states
in decriminalising or allowing users to grow limited amounts of Cannabis.

She says other drugs she's taken since the earlier conviction have done her
more harm than good.

LYNETTE WHALEN: Strong anti-anxiety tablets which I've never taken in my
life before and it's been hard. Tablet form that you don't know what you're
taking, that's my opinion anyway. I've tried all sorts of medications and
it seems to be the one that works for me.

***

Report: 1:40pm AEST
MARIJUANA ADVOCATES WELCOME COURT RULING

PAUL KIELLY: Advocates of medical marijuana have welcomed the quashing of a
conviction for cannabis against a Byron Bay woman, but say the case has not
set a precedent.

The Lismore District Court ruled that no conviction be recorded against
Lynette Whalen, who says she uses the drug to alleviate pain from cancer.

The Byron Bay court had fined her $1,000 over seven plants.

Her solicitor, Steve Bolt, says the decision shows how courts should be
treating the issue for those who have a medicinal use for cannabis.

Nimbin doctor David Helliwell says it is a case where everyone appears to
have done the right thing, having discussed the issue with her doctor.

Dr Helliwell says while the validity of medical marijuana still hinges on
individual judges, the ruling means doctors can speak more openly.

DR DAVID HELLIWELL: We can now actually explain to patients pharmacologically
why cannabis is helpful," he said.

Five years ago I couldn't.

The data's coming in clearly that cannabis is a drug, we knew that.

Cannabis acts on brain receptors and has a role in the management of some
medications.

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

Speaking Of Which (The Daily Yomiuri, in Tokyo, prints a feature article on
entrepreneur Koichi Maeda, Japan's most dedicated hemp advocate. "I first
became interested in a certain part of the hemp plant about 30 years ago,"
says Maeda, who is coming up on 50. "But over the past six or seven years, I
have become interested in the entire plant." He is the author of "Marijuana
Seishun Ryoko," or "A Young Man's Marijuana Travels," a book that has sold
75,000 copies. In it, he draws from his travels in 50 countries to describe
various adventures and experiences. Maeda opened Tokyo's first hemp
restaurant - Asa Café - in 1998. "I opened on Aug. 15 to commemorate Japan's
defeat," he said. "Hemp was legal in Japan until the end of World War II,
when it was banned by the Occupation Forces. It was a part of our culture, it
was used in Shinto rituals. Even today, the Emperor wears hemp clothing on
some occasions. For the last 50 years we have been alienated from our hemp
culture, we are still ruled by the American occupation.")

Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 23:50:51 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Japan: Speaking Of Which
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Frank S. World
Pubdate: Thurs, 27 May 1999
Source: Daily Yomiuri
Contact: daily@tokyo.yomiuri.co.jp
Website: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/main/main-e.htm
Copyright: 1999 The Yomiuri Shimbun
Author: Darron Hargreaves, Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer

SPEAKING OF WHICH

Entrepreneur Koichi Maeda is Japan's most vociferous and dedicated hemp
advocate, for several reasons. There is the obvious one, which he makes no
bones about. He is the author of "Marijuana Seishun Ryoko" (A Young Man's
Marijuana Travels), a book that has sold 75,000 copies in Japan. In it, he
draws from his travels in 50 countries to describe various adventures and
experiences.

"I first became interested in a certain part of the hemp plant about 30
years ago," says Maeda, who is coming up on 50. "But over the past six or
seven years, I have become interested in the entire plant."

Maeda is convinced that hemp is one of the most valuable, versatile plants
in the world and he is continually amazed that its cultivation has been
outlawed in Japan and many other parts of the world. He will point out that
hemp is used to make clothing, rope, paper, building materials, cosmetics
and medicine.

He is not alone. Hemp activists around the world are clamoring for the
legalization of "industrial" hemp. Its benefits are numerous and varied.
According to an information package produced by the Environment Centre of
Western Australia, hemp has enormous economic and environmental benefits. In
summary, it claims that hemp has a very high yield, needs very little
herbicide or pesticide, reduces pollution, reverses the greenhouse effect
and stops deforestation. Hemp would create jobs and reduce Australia's trade
deficit.

It would no doubt work similar wonders in Japan. Plus, it makes pretty good
eating, believe it or not. On Aug. 15, 1998, Maeda opened Tokyo's first hemp
restaurant--Asa Cafe--in Shimokitazawa. It's a cozy little place that
features hemp placemats, a hemp particle board wall, hemp flower designs and
a menu comprising things you would never imagine could be made from hemp.
Pizza, pasta, burgers, 100 percent hemp spring rolls, tofu, marmalade, hemp
oil for the salads and even hemp milk to wash it down. The hempburger,
served with vegetables and a bowl of hemp soup is surprisingly tasty and
almost too nutritious for your own good. The milk, on ice, is delicious.
It's hemp heaven, but for one niggling technical point necessitated by law.
The THC content--the active ingredient in marijuana--of the menu items is
practically nil.

But that was hardly the point when Maeda opened Asa Cafe, 53 years to the
day after Japan surrendered to the Allies to end World War II. He opened the
restaurant to demonstrate the versatility of hemp and protest what he feels
is the government's weak-kneed approach to hemp legislation.

"I opened on Aug. 15 to commemorate Japan's defeat," he said. "Hemp was
legal in Japan until the end of World War II, when it was banned by the
Occupation Forces. It was a part of our culture, it was used in Shinto
rituals. Even today, the Emperor wears hemp clothing on some occasions. For
the last 50 years we have been alienated from our hemp culture, we are
still ruled by the American occupation."

According to Maeda, the only place where hemp plants can be legally grown in
Japan is in Tokushima Prefecture, on a group of islands near Osaka, where it
is allowed only if a special permit is obtained.

"The government seems to think hemp is the most dangerous plant in the
world, but the Health ministry has never investigated it," he said. "Never.
So why prohibit it? It is very stupid, yet they put heavy fines on the
people who grow or use it. It is ridiculous."

Maeda, who also runs a similar restaurant in Osaka, admits he doesn't make
money on Asa Cafe. "I never planned on making a profit," he says. "I just
want to lose as little as possible."

A few blocks from the cafe he operates a hemp clothing and "paraphernalia"
shop called Taimado. "Now, this place makes a profit," he said with a quick
grin as he stood among the handbags and T-shirts and various smoking
implements and accessories.

Of great interest to Maeda is the possibility that the U.S. federal
government may legalize the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes in
December. Some states have already approved it, but a federal ruling, he
feels, may prompt some action in Japan.

"We always follow the lead of the United States," he said. "I believe that
eventually (legalization) will happen here, but it will be a very slow
process. Maybe 100 years."

In the meantime, there are hempburgers to be had. Funny thing though, once
you've munched down a few hemp dishes, you get this overpowering urge to
light up a smoke....

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

Medicinal cannabis (A letter to the editor of the Times, in Britain, from the
chairman of the Royal College of Nursing's Forum for the Development of
Mental Health Nursing Practice notes the Townswomen's Guild has joined the
campaign to allow the seriously and terminally ill to use cannabis
medicinally. Politicians should return cannabis to the medicinal status it
held before the Misuse of Drugs Act of 1971.)

Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 13:04:27 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: UK: MMJ: PUB LTE: Medicinal cannabis
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Craig VanDeVooren
Pubdate: Thu, 27 May 1999
Source: Times, The (UK)
Copyright: 1999 Times Newspapers Ltd
Contact: letters@the-times.co.uk
Website: http://www.the-times.co.uk/
Author: David Harding-Price

MEDICINAL CANNABIS

Sir, The Townswomen's Guild is backing the campaign to allow the seriously
and terminally ill to use cannabis medicinally. The Guild is a most welcomed
ally. Anecdotal evidence has for some time shown that cannabis alleviates
pain in some medical conditions, particularly terminal ones, and also
improves the quality of life for people with multiple sclerosis.

Why do politicians not return cannabis to the medicinal status it held
before the Misuse of Drugs Act of 1971? The argument that to do so would
lead to increased misuse of cannabis does not stand up. Having been involved
with an addictions unit, I know that the people most likely to benefit from
prescribed cannabis are highly unlikely to sell their prescriptions to other
people.

Yours faithfully,

David Harding-Price,
Chairman, Forum for the Development of Mental Health Nursing Practice
Royal College of Nursing, 20 Cavendish Square, London W1M 0AB. May 23.

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

Hockney Says Drugs Are Fine But Not For Art (The Times says David Hockney,
Britain's most celebrated contemporary artist, breezed into London from his
California home yesterday and had an immediate brush with controversy.
Holding court at the Royal Academy of Arts, he called for the legalisation of
cocaine and marijuana and insisted that years of drug-taking had not harmed
him in any way. But, he hastened to add, he had never indulged when working
because "drugs and art don't mix." He also noted two close friends had died
from alcohol rather than illegal substances.)

Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 16:01:28 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: UK: Hockney Says Drugs Are Fine But Not For Art
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Martin Cooke (mjc1947@cyberclub.iol.ie)
Pubdate: Thu, 27 May 1999
Source: Times, The (UK)
Copyright: 1999 Times Newspapers Ltd
Contact: letters@the-times.co.uk
Website: http://www.the-times.co.uk/
Author: Dalya Alberge

HOCKNEY SAYS DRUGS ARE FINE BUT NOT FOR ART

On the eve of his London show the artist tells Dalya Alberge why marijuana
should be legal

David Hockney, Britain's most celebrated contemporary artist, breezed into
London from his California home yesterday and had an immediate brush with
controversy.

Holding court at the Royal Academy of Arts, he called for the legalisation
of cocaine and marijuana and insisted that years of drug-taking had not
harmed him in any way.

But, he hastened to add, he had never indulged in stimulants when working
because "drugs and art don't mix".

"You have to be very clear-headed," he said. Drugs made you "too pleased
with everything", and to create great work "you have to struggle".

The comments came just a day after the Government issued a warning on the
dangers facing young people from a flood of heroin and cocaine.

Posing for the media in front of his panoramas of the Grand Canyon, which
will be unveiled for the first time in Britain at the Summer Exhibition from
June 7 to August 15, he confessed to a regular "joint" with a glass of
whisky in the evening. Dismissing government policy as naive, he said: "They
are trying to ban cigarette advertising. They don't advertise marijuana and
cocaine - and they seem to be doing quite well.

"I remember Jack Straw in 1968 saying 'you can't legalise marijuana as we
haven't got enough information'. Thirty years later, he's said exactly the
same thing. I don't know what life has taught him, I've learnt quite a lot.
I've smoked a lot of marijuana. It hasn't harmed me."

He said that two close friends had died from alcohol rather than illegal
substances.

A Cabinet Office spokesman yesterday refuted Hockney's claims.

She said: "We don't see it (drugs) as something recreational but something
that wrecks lives on an individual and community level. There are degrees of
drug misuse. At worst, it kills."

The Royal Academy has devoted an entire room to Hockney this year, marking a
departure for the Summer Exhibition. More than 1,000 works by established
and unknown artists have been assembled for this year's
exhibition.

Hockney's space will feature a series of mirrors, angled so that his
paintings, rather than the onlooker, are caught in the reflections.

He said the Royal Academy had been "a bit sceptical" about the mirrored
creation. "When they saw them, they agreed they worked," he said.

The Bradford-born artist, one of the Royal Academy's most distinguished
members, has visited the Grand Canyon every three months for the past ten years.

From a series of studies and photographs, he has created paintings spread
across a grid of dozens of small canvases. "I am drawn to it," he said. "You
feel the space that can be defined by its edge."

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

Actor In Drug 'Sting' Gets Nine Months (The Daily Telegraph, in Britain,
says John Alford, the former star of London's Burning, was jailed yesterday
on charges of supplying cannabis and cocaine. Alford, 27, blamed the News of
the World for entrapping him into supplying the drugs to a reporter posing as
an Arab prince.)

Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 16:01:24 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: UK: Actor In Drug 'Sting' Gets Nine Months
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Martin Cooke (mjc1947@cyberclub.iol.ie)
Pubdate: Thu, 27 May 1999
Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)
Copyright: of Telegraph Group Limited 1999
Contact: dtletters@telegraph.co.uk
Website: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Author: Sue Clough, Courts Correspondent

ACTOR IN DRUG 'STING' GETS NINE MONTHS

John Alford, the former London's Burning star, was jailed for nine months
yesterday. He had been taken in by a newspaper "sting" that exposed him as a
drug supplier.

Alford, 27, who defended himself in the trial earlier this month at
Snaresbrook Crown Court, was convicted of supplying cannabis and cocaine. He
blamed the News of the World for entrapping him into supplying the drugs to
an undercover reporter posing as an Arab prince.

In mitigation, David Etherington, QC, accused the newspaper of setting out
to snare someone who was "naive, over-anxious to please and easily dazzled".

During the trial Alford admitted he had been a cocaine user from the age of
13 to 23 and had spent up to UKP500 a week on his habit. The actor, who lost
his UKP50,000-a-year role in the television series after the newspaper
article, was "undoubtedly motivated by a desire to earn even more money",
said Judge Stephen Robbins.

He added: "There was a strong element of entrapment but you willingly went
along with the idea. You had plenty of opportunity when you left ... to
fetch these drugs to distance yourself from it."

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

Actor Jailed For Dealing In Drugs (The Guardian version)

Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 16:01:25 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: UK: Actor Jailed For Dealing In Drugs
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Martin Cooke (mjc1947@cyberclub.iol.ie)
Pubdate: Thu, 27 May 1999
Source: Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright: Guardian Media Group 1999
Contact: letters@guardian.co.uk
Website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/

ACTOR JAILED FOR DEALING IN DRUGS

John Alford, the star of the television series London's Burning, was jailed
yesterday for nine months for supplying cocaine and cannabis.

The disgraced actor, sacked from the series when his involvement with drugs
became public, was caught on camera clinching a deal with an undercover
journalist pretending to be an Arabian royal.

Judge Stephen Robbins told Alford, 27, below, that although entrapment by
the News of the World played a part in the situation, he was "undoubtedly
motivated by the desire to earn even more money than [he was] earning as a
successful actor."

The judge said: "There was a strong element of entrapment, but you willingly
went along with the idea. You had plenty of opportunity when you left to
fetch these drugs to distance yourself from it."

The judge told the former TV firefighter that he also had to bear in mind
that he had previously used cocaine heavily himself, spending sometimes up
to UKP500 on his habit, before weaning himself off it. He reminded the
actor, who was ordered to pay UKP3,000 costs, that he had told the court of
seeing friends "go down the road to hell from this drug".

The judge said: "People in such circumstances who then agree to supply that
very same drug can expect little mercy from the courts."

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

Nine Months For Drug Case TV Star (The Scotsman version)

Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 14:58:04 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: UK: Nine Months For Drug Case Tv Star
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: shug@shuggie.demon.co.uk
Pubdate: 27 May 1999
Source: Scotsman (UK)
Copyright: The Scotsman Publications Ltd 1999
Contact: Letters_ts@scotsman.com
Website: http://www.scotsman.com/
Forum: http://www.scotsman.com/
Author: Melvyn Howe

NINE MONTHS FOR DRUG CASE TV STAR

THE downfall of the former London's Burning star John Alford was
completed yesterday when he was jailed for nine months for supplying
cocaine and cannabis.

The disgraced actor, sacked from the ITV series when his involvement
with drugs was disclosed, was caught on camera clinching a deal with
an undercover tabloid journalist posing as Arab royalty.

Alford, 27, who has described himself as "the biggest mug on the
planet", seemed resigned to his fate at Snaresbrook Crown Court in
London.

Judge Stephen Robbins said: "You were undoubtedly motivated by the
desire to earn even more money than you were earning as a successful
actor, believing you would be opening a nightclub in Dubai. There was
a strong element of entrapment, but you willingly went along with the
idea. You had plenty of opportunity when you left - to fetch these
drugs, to distance yourself from it."

He also reminded the actor that he had told the court of seeing
friends "go down the road to hell from this drug [cocaine]".

The judge said: "People in such circumstances who then agree to supply
that very same drug can and should expect little mercy from the courts."

Alford was jailed for nine months for supplying 2,037 grams of cocaine
to a News of the World's investigator in August 1997, with a two-month
term to run concurrently for a similar count involving 11.9 grams of
cannabis resin.

The actor will have to pay UKP3,000 towards prosecution costs, as well
as meet a UKP300 confiscation order - the money given to him by the
reporter to buy the drugs - or face a further 14 days in prison.

Earlier, David Etherington, QC, defending, said promises of big-time
film contacts and a "cave of other treasures" resulted in "formidable
temptation" for someone the News of the World regarded as a "child".

The whole package, said the barrister, was "clever, cynical, made to
order" and "rather sickening".

Mr Etherington told the court that "any right-thinking person would
have some feeling of revulsion about the manner and the casualness"
with which those involved in his client's downfall had discussed his
destruction shortly before his arrival at the Savoy hotel.

He added: "Perhaps the public, having had an excess of these sort of
cases in recent weeks, are beginning to question quite what is going
on in these sort of operations and whether they are quite so much in
the public good as they are told."

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

War The Enforcer Can't Win (Scotsman columnist Edward Pearce says the new
drive against drugs will actually do more harm than good. A different
approach is needed - and we could start by legalising soft drugs. There was a
time when homosexual relations were thought unspeakably horrific. Decent
people flinched in nausea. The most compassionate talked of illness rather
than crime, but policemen were employed to haunt public urinals to hunt for
smiles and smile back, to engage in part-way complicity and to lie their
heads off when hauling off the morally deformed to social ruin in the courts.
This is what the tabloids now do with any celebrity who can be crucified for
drug consumption. The accompanying hatreds are much the same. The viciousness
of virtue is quite special.)

Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 14:35:49 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: UK: War The Enforcer Can't Win
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: shug@shuggie.demon.co.uk
Pubdate: 27 May 1999
Source: Scotsman (UK)
Copyright: The Scotsman Publications Ltd 1999
Contact: Letters_ts@scotsman.com
Website: http://www.scotsman.com/
Forum: http://www.scotsman.com/

WAR THE ENFORCER CAN'T WIN

The new drive against drugs will actually do more harm than good, says
Edward Pearce. A different approach is needed - and we could start by
legalising soft drugs

In seeking to limit availability, "our aim is to reduce access to all
drugs amongst young people significantly, and to reduce access to all
drugs which cause the greatest harm, particularly heroin and cocaine,
by 25 per cent by 2005 and by 50 per cent by 2008".

The words, precise in the way of the silliest undertakings, are those
of Dr Jack Cunningham, not altogether a bad chap, not really the idiot
he is making himself here on behalf of a collective Cabinet idiocy.
But he is proclaiming the Blair Government's latest contribution to
the profits of drug dealing and making, amid the cumulus of futile
aspiration, one verifiably wrong statement. Heroin and cocaine are not
the drugs which cause the greatest harm. The nameless substances with
which heroine and cocaine are frequently cut do that. Taken regularly
in pure form, heroin and cocaine are not liquorice allsorts, but they
can actually be lived with, attend a steady working career, can matter
less than excitable politicians think.

And with Mr Blair's mind, Mr Straw's instincts and Dr Cunningham's
Bittern boom at work, expect the harm caused by taking heavy drugs to
increase.

The idea underlying yesterday's preposterous statement is the seizure
of more drugs and their profits to finance what are called Drug Action
Teams and a Drug Prevention Advisory Service, titles in capital
letters to speak resonant purpose - new Faberge Easter eggs for the
"Drugs Czar"! And if another drive against drugs - ie more policemen,
more undercover operations, more false heroics - should in any degree
succeed, it will be met by an appropriately greater adulteration of
the drugs sold, and a corresponding increase in that "greater harm".
Caused, let us add, by fools of politicians.

The standard way to handle any shortfall in the turnover of
shirtbuttons is to increase profit per unit sold. There are two ways
of doing that with drugs. A higher price multiplies petty crime;
cutting kills people.

There was a time when homosexual relations were thought unspeakably
horrific. Decent people flinched in nausea. The most compassionate
talked of illness rather than crime, but policemen were employed to
haunt public urinals to hunt for smiles and smile back, to engage in
part-way complicity and to lie their heads off when hauling off the
morally deformed to social ruin in the courts.

This is what the tabloids now do with any celebrity who can be
crucified for drug consumption. The accompanying hatreds are much the
same. "He'll have his hair cut now," cackled a group of prostitutes at
the manacled Oscar Wilde. Perm any three News of the World headlines.
The viciousness of virtue is quite special. We don't do that any more,
and indeed homosexuals have grown a bit boring. We don't do it because
our morality has changed. Sexual variance is seen as legitimate.

Let's spell this out so that it can't be misunderstood. The time is
not far away when our already changing morality will have moved quite
as far on drugs. We are going to reach quite soon a consensus that
drugs are a choice the way whisky and beer are choices, that addicted
involvement is not wisdom, but that drug-taking will be the chosen
recreation of many people and that railing against it is pointless.

Only one MP, Paul Flynn of Newport, had the courage on Tuesday to
offer any resistance to the Enforcer's noisy assertion of received
standard fallacy. But go back to debates about sexual deviancy in the
1940s, read DJ West's absurd Pelican book of 1955, and you will see
the same fixed, unreflective horror, the same statutory intolerance.
Mr Flynn suggested heretically that soft drugs should be legalised.
Cannabis at least should be legal the way beer is legal. Apart from
inducing pacific and inert moods rather than belligerence, your
unadulterated spliff is on a rough metabolic par with your
unadulterated pint of Deuchars.

Somebody once tried to prohibit the drinking of beer. Step forward the
Jack Cunningham of his day, United States Congressman Andrew Volstead.
The act bearing his name passed the American legislature in 1918.

It established 14 festive years of corporate criminality as the needs
of the market were met by rather obvious looking mafiosi in
error-of-taste suits, facilitated by systemic bribery of the police
and local government and, with a spiked commodity terrors were added
beyond the resources of ordinary alcohol. There was a market for beer
and whisky then which was always going to be met and was accommodated
through black channels. There is a similar demand for every kind of
drug today and it is met by the black market.

Consider Sydney Smith's account of Mrs Partington of
Sidmouth: "In the winter of 1824 there set in a great flood
upon that town ... Dame Partington who lived upon the beach,
was seen at the door of her house with mop and patterns,
trundling her mop, squeezing out the sea-water and
vigorously pushing away the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic was
roused. Mrs Partington's spirit was up; but I need not tell
you the contest was unequal. The Atlantic Ocean beat Mrs
Partington." Have I quoted that before? It is all politics.

Smith was talking about electoral reform, a grander thing than
substances. But there is no real difference. Demand is demand - for a
commodity or forms of government. Any minister orating about the war
on drugs stands exactly where Mrs Partington stood - up to the knees!
There exists, not perhaps the Atlantic, but a fair-sized sea, and it
will beat Dr Cunningham.

There are three problems in this field - the harm done to users,
criminal distribution and the great volume of theft committed to meet
the criminals' price. Given pure drugs, almost certainly the physical
harm would decline heavily. That can be achieved by opening a legal
market and given individual financial strictures, prescribing free.
The legal market will not adulterate cocaine any more than it now
adulterates TCP, and who steals to go to Boots?

So what should we do now that Blairism in all its argument-proof
prissiness never will? Refusing any longer to do what we cannot
usefully do, we legalise soft drugs. We expand widely on the field
experiments of the two Drs Marks who have been guiding patients to
legally supplied hard drugs, to monitor how people will cope who rely
on drugs but not on criminal suppliers. If, over two years, those
tests validate the point that life improves with lawful regularity, we
should proceed to the legalisation of all drugs.

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

Ten-Year Mandatory Drug Term From Today (The Irish Times says the Criminal
Justice Act, 1999, passed into law yesterday, mandating a 10-year jail
sentence for anyone caught possessing a supply of drugs estimated by the
courts to be worth £10,000 or more. At present garda officially estimate the
value of cannabis on a basis of its "final" street value of £10 per gram, so
possession of a kilo or more of the herb could result in the mandatory
10-year sentence.)

Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 16:50:51 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Ireland: Ten-Year Mandatory Drug Term From Today
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Martin Cooke (mjc1947@cyberclub.iol.ie)
Pubdate: Thu, 27 May 1999
Source: Irish Times (Ireland)
Copyright: 1999 The Irish Times
Contact: lettersed@irish-times.ie
Address: Letters to Editor, The Irish Times, 11-15 D'Olier St, Dublin 2,
Ireland
Fax: + 353 1 671 9407
Website: http://www.ireland.com/
Author: Jim Cusack, Security Correspondent

TEN-YEAR MANDATORY DRUG TERM FROM TODAY

Possession for supply of drugs estimated by the courts to be worth
IEP10,000 or more will result in a mandatory 10-year jail sentence
from today, following the introduction of new laws.

The Minister for Justice's Act, first mooted while he was opposition
spokesman on justice over three years ago, passed into law yesterday
as the Criminal Justice Act, 1999.

Part II of the Act creates a new offence of possession of drugs with
intent to supply with a value of IEP10,000 or more, for which there
will be a mandatory 10-year sentence.

At present garda officially estimated the value of cannabis on a
basis of its "final" street value of IEP10 per gram, so possession of
a kilo or more of the drug could, from now, result in the mandatory
10-year sentence.

Along with the laws allowing the seizure of suspected criminal assets,
the State now has some of the toughest anti-crime and anti-drugs
legislation in the developed world.

In a statement yesterday, Mr O'Donoghue said: "It is important that
the message goes out widely that from today people who commit the
offence of possessing drugs with a value of IEP10,000 with intent to
supply will face minimum, mandatory 10-year prison sentences.

"That is the stark reality which drug-pushers now face and if they
take that risk they will have no one to blame but themselves.

"The Criminal Justice Act, 1999, is a flagship measure in my extensive
programme of criminal law reform.

"While there is no room for complacency, the Act is further evidence
of the Government's zero-tolerance approach to crime, an approach
which all the available evidence vindicates, not least the
unprecedented reductions which have been taking place in the crime
rate," he said.

The new Criminal Justice Act also includes provisions making it an
offence punishable by up to 10 years in prison to intimidate a witness.

This measure was announced by the Minister after it emerged the IRA
intimidated witnesses in the case in which five of its members faced
charges of murdering Det Garda Jerry McCabe.

After the witnesses withdrew from the case the murder charges were
dropped and defendants pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of
manslaughter.

Other provisions in the Criminal Justice Act will come into force as
quickly as possible and include automatic inquiries into the assets of
drug-traffickers.

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

Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies, Year 5, No. 21 (A summary of European
and international drug policy news, from CORA, in Italy)

Date: 27 May 1999 17:46:13 -0000
From: CORA Fax_EN (cora.belgique@agora.stm.it)
Delivered-To: mailing list CORAFax_EN@listbot.com
Subject: CORAFax #21

ANTIPROHIBITIONIST OF THE ENTIRE WORLD ....
Year 5 #21, May 27 1999

***

Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies

***

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

***

- WEB INFO CORA
http://www.agora.it/coranet

- MAIL INFO CORA
mailto:cora.news@agora.stm.it

- SUBSCRIBE the Mailing List CORA
http://www.radicalparty.org/elist/elist_cora.htm

***

director: Vincenzo Donvito
All rights reserved

***

CORA NEWS

***

Giulio Manfredi, of the CORA, says that the Turin meeting "Nuove Droghe"
could be useful to introduce effective prevention policies regarding the
new synthetic drugs. He openly disagrees with the municipal councillor
Mr. D'Ambrosio, who is against both

***

CLIPPINGS

The anti prohibitionists have launched an appeal to the candidates for
European Parliament in favour of de-penalisation of all drugs and of
legalisation of light drugs. They also ask for more effective harm
reduction strategies and for a reform of international agreements. Forum
Droghe, the association who is sponsoring the appeal, hopes that the
forthcoming elections will represent a turning point towards more human
and tolerant policies.

***

NEWS FROM THE WORLD

***

000625 27/05/99
ADDICTION
L'ESPRESSO

Modern pharmacology is making considerable progress in the battle against
drug addiction. Pills against cocaine, heroin, alcohol and cigarettes have
in fact been launched on the market. These medicines act directly on the
molecules of the brain that cause the craving.

***

000626 20/05/99
E.U. / SPAIN
INITIATIVE
EL PAIS 20-25/05 / CAMBIO 16 21/05

Andalusia and Catalunia are waiting for the Ministry of Health to approve
their plans for controlled distribution of heroin. In the meantime the
Uncdp (the UN supervising office on drugs) has invited the two
governmentes to not imitate the Swiss plan.

***

000622 21/05/99
E.U. / ITALY / ROME
JUSTICE
CORRIERE DELLA SERA

The Court of Cassation has accepted the state of anger and stress that
drove a father to kill his heroin addict daughter as a valid extenuatory
circumstance. It seems that the girl had been an addict for twenty years.

***

000623 21/05/99
E.U. / GB
JUSTICE
THE TIMES

MP Paul Flynn has condemned the decision of imprisoning a arthritic man
who was condemned to 12 months for having held a conference on the
therapeutic use of cannabis. The sentence had not been enforced up to this
day.

***

000624 21/05/99
E.U. / GB
PREVENTION
THE TIMES

The Eton prevention programme against drug circulation in schools has
achieved the result of seven student expulsion in four years, thus
reducing noticeably the phenomenon.

***

000627 21/05/99
E.U. / NL
WAR ON DRUGS
CAMBIO 16

The novelist Larry Collins explains his contrariety to legalisation of
light drugs by citing the policy that is adopted in Holland. It has been a
failure, in his opinion.

***

000628 26/05/99
AMERICA / USA
WAR ON DRUGS
HERALD TRIBUNE

Thomas Constantine, for the past five years director of the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration, has publicly announced his intentions to
retire. He has also put everyone on notice about the dangers represented
by the infiltration of Mexican drug traffickers in the USA.

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[End]