DrugSense Weekly, No. 96 (The original summary of drug policy news from DrugSense opens with the weekly Feature Article - Update on Steve and Michelle Kubby, by Steve Kubby. The Weekly News in Review features several articles about Cannabis, Hemp and Medicinal Marijuana, including - Libertarians launch Prop. 215 web site inspired by Kubby arrests; Another victory for medical marijuana; Bad marijuana bill; Hemp: Now we're wearing it, eating it, even building with it; Drug-war supporters turned freedom fighters; and, $10 million claim filed in pot arrest. Articles about Drug War Policy and Law Enforcement & Prisons include - California police forced to return marijuana; Arizona shows the way on drugs; Reno at large; Study backs treatment, not prison, for addicts; Drug treatment said to reduce crime; Parents key in drug war, study says; and, U.S. antidrug campaign's impact to be closely tracked by surveys. International News includes - Police chiefs want possession of all narcotics decriminalized; Cops can't keep up with B.C. drug trade; and, Police like pot-penalty plan. The weekly Hot Off The 'Net notes Family Watch has announced an online bookstore. The Fact of the Week documents that the Institute of Medicine Report discounts the risk that medical use of marijuana will lead to increased non-medical use. The Quote of the Week cites Thomas Jefferson.)
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Thursday, April 29, 1999:
NORML Weekly Press Release (Reform Party, Canada's top cops back removing criminal pot penalties; California high court says police must return medical marijuana to [atients; Oregon first state to license medical marijuana patients; Swiss government committee says legalize marijuana; House reps. to introduce student drug testing bills in Congress)
Rescheduling marijuana resolution HJM 10 (A list subscriber says the resolution before the Oregon legislature calling on Congress to make marijuana available to physicians and patients was approved by a 4-3 committee vote this morning.)
Sheriff's deputy is accused of child sex abuse (The Oregonian says Robert William Morrissey, 44, a Washington County sheriff's deputy, was arrested Wednesday on accusations of sexually abusing two preschool-age girls.)
Alterna Blankets Los Angeles With Hemp Again (A company press release on Business Wire says Alterna Applied Research Laboratories, which produces professional hemp hair care products, has re-posted its thought-provoking hemp-leaf ad images all over Los Angeles County in an effort to keep the message of industrial hemp alive. Alterna was forced to take down 100 of its hemp-shampoo ads last October in Los Angeles as a result of a drug-baiting campaign by DARE America.)
Juror Conviction Reversed (A bulletin from the Jury Rights Project provides a URL to the text of today's ruling by the Colorado Court of Appeals overturning the contempt of court conviction of Laura Kriho.)
U.S. Court Overturns Juror's Contempt Conviction (Reuters says the Colorado Court of Appeals on Thursday overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial for Laura Kriho, a juror who was convicted of being in contempt of court because she was not asked and didn't reveal her opposition to drug prohibition when she was selected for a jury in a methamphetamine case.)
Michigan To Begin Welfare Drug Testing (The Associated Press says Michigan Governor John Engler signed a bill into law Wednesday that will require drug tests of welfare applicants in three areas of the state beginning Oct. 1. The new law is believed to be the first in the nation to require drug tests of all welfare applicants, and requires such tests to be given statewide beginning April 1, 2003.)
Tempest Over A Small Pot (A staff editorial in the Meriden Record-Journal says the bust of University of Connecticut basketball star Khalid El-Amin for marijuana possession has distracted people from America's primary drug problem, which is not marijuana, but alcohol. To treat El-Amin's arrest as a momentous, even scandalous, event when high school and college athletes develop far more serious problems far more regularly from alcohol abuse is absurd. But we treat this problem with less severity. We do not cast the same opprobrium upon it as we do other drugs and, in fact, alcohol is seen by some as a natural part of the machismo that accompanies the sporting culture.)
New Jersey Police Enlist Hotel Workers in War on Drugs (The New York Times says New Jersey state troopers have quietly enlisted workers at dozens of hotels along the New Jersey Turnpike to tip them off about suspicious guests who, among other things, pay for their their rooms in cash or receive a flurry of phone calls. The Hotel-Motel Program, modeled on a similar program in Los Angeles initiated by federal prohibition agents, routinely allows troopers, without a warrant, to leaf through the credit card receipts and registration forms of all guests, and provides $1,000 rewards to workers whose tips lead to "successful" arrests. Hotel and motel managers say they are assured that their workers will never be required to testify or have their names revealed in court documents. Police also tell them to take racial characteristics into account and pay particular attention to guests who speak Spanish.)
Stanford Study: Films Show Drug Use, Omit Consequences (The San Jose Mercury News says a $400,000 study was released Wednesday by Stanford University researchers being paid by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The government researchers looked at the 200 most popular movies rented in 1996 and 1997 and found 98 percent showed characters using tobacco, alcohol or "drugs," yet only 12 percent showed "long-term consequences" of "risky behavior." Music was much less likely than film to include "questionable content." Tellingly, the researchers bemoan the fact that "even when the impact was shown - such as the late actor Chris Farley falling down drunk in the film 'Tommy Boy' - the effect was often played for laughs." Like, the feds don't think laughter can be used to teach realistic truths about alcohol abuse.)
Films And Music Glamorize Substance Use, Government Says (The Associated Press version in the Orange County Register)
Movies' Depiction Of Drug Use Scored (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette version)
Drug Testing In Schools Proposed (The Associated Press says two Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives, John Peterson of Pennsylvania and James Rogan of California, introduced different bills Wednesday that would fund random drug testing in schools, supposedly as a way to reduce youth violence such as the recent high school massacre in Littleton, Colorado. Toxicology tests revealed no alcohol or other "drugs" in the bodies of the Colorado gunmen, but Peterson said there had been incidents elsewhere that involved "drugs." Unfortunately, AP refused to ask where.)
The Fix is In (A list subscriber forwards an excellent book review by Stanton Peele, from an upcoming issue of the International Journal of Drug Policy, of "The Fix," by Michael Massing, and "An Informed Approach to Substance Abuse," by Mark Kleiman. "It is hard to escape the conclusion that Kleiman and Massing ignore legal remedies for our current drug policy mess because they wish to avoid offending their audiences rather than due to their straightforward evaluation of the current drug scene. They support an anti-drug stance because it is essential for legitimacy in popular, scientific, and political circles in the U.S.")
Cocaine Disguise (According to the Times, in London, Barry McCaffrey told a U.S. Senate committee in Washington that American narcotics agents were very concerned that Colombia's drugs cartels had developed a black cocaine that sniffer dogs and chemical tests cannot detect.)
Seed production made illegal (A list subscriber forwards news from Britain that a law that took effect April 21 in the Netherlands bans the production of marijuana seeds. Possession is still legal, but those caught growing plants for seeds now face up to four years in jail.)
Door Slams On Dealers - Marijuana Limit Cut To Three Plants (The Australian says that in response to police concerns that South Australia's current 10-plant cultivation limit is allowing traffickers sell cannabis in the eastern States in exchange for harder drugs, the Cabinet has approved in principle new regulations cutting the personal-use limit to three cannabis plants. Apparently nobody was allowed the opportunity to dispel police misconceptions. Mr Mike Elliott, the Australian Democrats State parliamentary leader, said the move would not make "an iota of difference in terms of supply. Cannabis consumption in SA is the same as in other States - it hasn't gone up because of our drug laws, so it's hard to see what this is trying to achieve.")
Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies, Year 5, No. 17 (A summary of European and international drug policy news, from CORA, in Italy)
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Wednesday, April 28, 1999:
Support petition to regulate cannabis, restore hemp, please! (Paul Stanford, a chief petitioner for the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, says OCTA's political action committee, the Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp, in the first week of petitioning collected more than 1,000 signatures of the 90,000 needed.)
County will discuss buying land for jail (The Oregonian says the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners will hold a closed meeting today to discuss land for a new $55 million, 225-bed, medium-security jail. In three years, the county has gone through more than 100 potential jail sites, dozens of public meetings and more than $2 million in taxpayer money - all without laying a single brick. The latest delay is caused by a dispute over where to put 300 beds for alcohol and drug treatment. A levy to operate the new jail will have to be approved by voters at some point, but the newspaper doesn't say how much it will cost to operate the jail or how commissioners will try to prevent voters from perceiving the levy as a referendum on the county's costly drug policy.)
Accounts differ on Salem killings (The Oregonian says an attorney for Timothy E. Espinoza, 17, told a jury in Espinoza's murder trial Tuesday that the defendant was trying to sell two teen-agers marijuana when he thought he saw one of them reach for a gun and fired in self-defense. Juan Torres, 18, and Fidencio Ceja, 17, both students at McKay High School, died after being shot three times each on Oct. 11. Prosecutor Diana Moffat said Espinoza approached the two, pretending to sell marijuana in order to get them to step off the street so he could shoot them.)
Pot Cultivation Charges Dropped (The Auburn Journal, in Auburn, California, says Superior Court Judge James D. Garbolino on Wednesday dismissed cultivation charges against a Rocklin dentist and his wife who were busted with 146 plants, issuing what could turn out to be a landmark ruling - that Proposition 215 exempts patients from prosecution on cultivation charges once they obtain a physician's recommendation. Michael and Georgia Baldwin, however, still face charges of selling marijuana, and the defense began presenting its case Wednesday following the favorable ruling on cultivation.)
Men, Not Women, Grab A Smoke To Lift Mood - Study (Reuters says a study presented at the American Lung Association conference in San Diego Tuesday suggests that contrary to popular belief, men are more likely than women to grab a cigarette if they are angry, anxious, sad or tired. Women are more likely to smoke for social rather than emotional reasons. Apparently unpublished, the study by Dr. Ralph Delfino and Dr. Larry Jamner of the University of California at Irvine suggests possible gender differences in the effect of nicotine on the central nervous system, possibly because of different interactions with hormones. The researchers arrived at their conclusions by tracking 25 women and 35 men ages 18 to 42 who made three diary entries an hour for up to 48 hours to record their mood and smoking behavior.)
Colorado shooting - no drugs (A list subscriber says that, according to the Denver Post, no "drugs" or alcohol were found in the bodies of two adolescents thought to have committed mass murder-suicide at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Left unsaid is whether post-mortem drug tests checked for pharmaceutical drugs, for example, antidepressaants.)
Gangbangers Ordered To Move Out Of Town (The Chicago Tribune notes officials in Cicero, Illinois, unanimously approved two ethnic cleansing ordinances Tuesday. Individuals shown to be gang members through a "preponderance of the evidence" can be ordered out of town, and face a $500-a-day fine if they stick around. Cicero officials also said they plan to follow up these ordinances by filing a $10 million lawsuit against more than 100 alleged gang members for violating other residents' rights. Town President Betty Loren-Maltese said the town also plans to erect gates in the most gang-infested areas to help keep evicted gangsters from re-entering the town. "If this is unconstitutional, then somebody ought to look at the Constitution," she declared.)
Pataki Offers Drug Law Reform (The Times Union, in Albany, New York, says New York's harsh Rockefeller Drug Laws would undergo their first major revision in 26 years under a soon-to-be-unveiled Pataki administration proposal that links sentencing reform with the elimination of parole.)
What Happened When New York Got Businesslike About Crime (An op-ed in the Wall Street Journal praises the "management by objective" policies of New York police under Mayor Rudy Giuliani. The results were stunning - crime dropped across the city's 76 precincts by 50 percent to 90 percent in three years. But this was stunning only because governmental problems are traditionally treated in such a way as to make them seem insoluble. Unfailingly, governmental problems, unlike business problems, become the occasion for "solutions" whose purpose is to please a constituency not directly related to the problem. Thus crime has been an occasion for promoting gun control, welfare spending, education spending, public housing, and myriad other causes for which powerful constituencies clamor. That's how politics works. It's not how business works.)
Con Says He Ran a Pot Ring Inside Jail (An Associated Press article in the Daily Press, in Virginia, says the attorney for Michael Fulcher tried to separate his case from those of 21 prison guards and other defendants implicated in drug trafficking at Bland Correctional Center by claiming Fulcher was working for the government's war on drugs. The only problem is that authorities say they didn't know about it.)
Give LSD To An Artist At Paris Cafe In 1952? (The Wall Street Journal describes a federal trial under way in New York in which the estate of the late Stanley Glickman is suing the late Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA scientist who tested the effects of hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD on unwitting victims. The essence of the suit is that an American artist living in Paris in 1952 went to a cafe, where a club footed man slipped a mind altering drug into his drink. The artist ended up in the hospital suffering from hallucinations. He was treated with electroshock therapy and began a 40 year decline into mental illness. The defense contends Mr. Glickman actually suffered from naturally occurring schizophrenia.)
The DEA Takes The Wraps Off Its New Training Facility (UPI briefly notes the Drug Enforcement Administration will open a 100-acre, $30 million training academy today in Quantico.)
Therapeutic Marijuana Use Supported While Thorough Proposed Study Done (The Journal of the American Medical Association says the March 17 Institute of Medicine report on medical marijuana provided "advocates" support by recommending that clinical trials and drug development proceed. But marijuana's acceptance as a prescribed drug appears to be years away - if it happens at all. A brief summary of the IOM report includes the investigators' six recommendations.)
Denying Education Is No Answer to Drug Use (A list activist invites you to point your browser to www.RaiseYourVoice.com to make a constructive protest against the provision in the Higher Education Act that bars financial aid to college students caught possessing marijuana or other supposedly controlled substances.)
McGuinty, Hampton Admit To Past Marijuana Use (The Ottawa Citizen says both of Ontario's opposition leaders admitted yesterday to smoking marijuana in the past, and urged that possession of the drug be decriminalized. The admissions from Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty and NDP Leader Howard Hampton came immediately after Premier Mike Harris vowed that his Progressive Conservative government's zero-tolerance policy on crime will continue to include the herb. Yesterday, a private members bill was introduced by Reform MP Keith Martin from B.C. in the House of Commons to decriminalize marijuana in an attempt to free valuable police resources and backlogged courts so they can deal with more serious criminal cases.)
Party leaders come clean on pot (The Toronto Star version)
Pot Isn't Harris' Cup Of Tea (The Toronto Globe and Mail version)
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Tuesday, April 27, 1999:
Senate approves measure to clarify state's suicide law (The Associated Press says the Oregon Senate approved a bill Monday to revise the state's unique physician-assisted suicide law, saying it would give the Death With Dignity Act much-needed clarification. Health groups that oppose assisted suicide, such as Providence Health System, a network of Catholic hospitals, will now be able to punish affiliated doctors if help a patient under the voter-approved law.)
Kubby Update (A bulletin from Steve Kubby, the medical-marijuana patient/activist and 1998 Libertarian candidate for California governor, and his wife, Michele, describes their recent court hearing in Auburn regarding their indictment on cultivation charges. "Everyone in town is rooting for you," said a receptionist at their hotel. The trial date has been moved back, to July 20.)
Medicine - Not Pot (An op-ed in the Washington Post by Robert L. DuPont, the former head of NIDA from 1973 to 1978, puts the drug-warrior spin on the March 17 Institute of Medicine report on medical marijuana.)
Justices To Decide If FDA Can Regulate Cigarettes As A Drug (The Houston Chronicle says the U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear the Clinton administration's appeal of a ruling by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the federal government does not have the authority to regulate cigarettes as a drug.)
Marijuana Bill Tabled (The Calgary Herald says Reform MP Keith Martin introduced legislation in Canada's Parliament yesterday that would decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, as recommended last week by the Canadian Association of Police Chiefs. The chiefs say they could maximize their dwindling resources by targeting organized crime instead of busting potheads. Justice Minister Anne McLellan is willing to look at the law, but not until after formally meeting with police chiefs in August.)
Reform Party Tables Pot Bill (The Toronto Sun version)
Magazine Stays (According to the New Zealand Herald, police in New Zealand are stymied in their efforts to remove High Times magazine from shop shelves. The Health Ministry was able to ban the importation of overseas cigar magazines by saying that they breached the Smokefree Environments Act, but the ministry decided it has "no jurisdiction over marijuana promotion.")
Moral Muddle In The Drugs Debate (A staff editorial in the Scotsman ponders the varying public perceptions and moralities suggested by the sensationalism that ensued after the death of a teenager, Leah Betts, who took ecstasy, and the widely ignored deaths last year of 80 people who took street heroin in Strathclyde. "A sensible drugs policy would treat each drug according to the risk it posed to health. Criminalising the true killers, unfortunately, is impossible as we cannot end society's affair with alcohol and tobacco. What we can do is to try to redress the balance in the way we deal with illegal drugs.")
Swiss Recommend Legalizing Cannabis (The Associated Press says a panel appointed by the Swiss government recommended Friday that the country legalize the sale and use of marijuana, but with controls to avoid becoming a "drug haven." The existing ban on marijuana hasn't worked and may even encourage its use among young people, the panel said. No other European nation, including the Netherlands, has technically legalized the possession or sale of cannabis.)
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Monday, April 26, 1999:
Suicide coverage passes review (The Oregonian says the Oregon Medical Association's House of Delegates voted Sunday in Sunriver in favor of a resolution allowing pharmacists to give "morning-after" contraception without a prescription, but voted against a resolution opposing coverage of physician-assisted suicide by the Oregon Health Plan.)
Libertarians launch Prop. 215 web site inspired by Kubby arrests (The Libertarian Party of California announces the debut of www.215Now.com, intended to pressure government officials into fully implementing Proposition 215.)
Million Marijuana March Tampa Florida 1 May 1999 (A list subscriber publicizes a rally Saturday at Gaslight Park being organized by the Florida Organization for Reformed Marijuana Laws, or FORML.)
Drug Talks Cut Teen Use, Survey Says (According to an Associated Press article in the Houston Chronicle, a study released Sunday by the Partnership for a Drug Free America found that teens who received strong anti-drug messages from their parents were 42 percent less likely to use "drugs" than teens whose parents ignored the issue - "drugs" in this case meaning drugs that are illegal for adults. Among teens who learned a lot at home, 26 percent said they had used marijuana. Among those who said they learned nothing at home, 45 percent said they had used marijuana. For inhalants, the first group reported 14 percent, the latter group 28 percent. For LSD, the figures were 7 percent and 20 percent; for cocaine, 7 percent and 16 percent. But no figures are reported for tobacco and alcohol, which are illegal for teens and also the most widely used.)
Parents Key in Drug War, Study Says (The Los Angeles Times version)
Study: Drug Talks Work (The New York Times version in the Orange County Register)
Reducing Abuse Of Drugs Begins At Home (An op-ed version by Eric Lichtblau of the Los Angeles Times in the San Jose Mercury News)
U.S. Antidrug Campaign To Be Closely Monitored (The Wall Street Journal notes the $2 billion federally sponsored propaganda campaign to promote the drug war and keep kids from using certain drugs is putting the government into the unfamiliar business of measuring advertising effectiveness. U.S. drug czar Barry R. McCaffrey, a retired four star general, said Friday he would hold Madison Avenue to the same high standard of accountability he was used to in the military. The government has hired the scientific survey firm Westat to question about 20,000 children and parents every six months to measure the campaign's progress. Market researchers also will do telephone sampling every month or two, for more immediate feedback. Early results are encouraging to the drug warriors, but it's not clear how they'd respond if the campaign backfired and "drug" use increased.)
Needle 'Exchanges' Often Aren't (A letter to the editor of the Washington Post from an official for the Drug Free America Foundation expresses doubt about the scientific basis for needle exchange programs for intravenous drug users.)
Run-On Sentencing - How The Affluent Got An Exemption In The War On Crime (The New Republic magazine says that for those in the top quarter of the income-distribution scale, the fight against crime seems to have merged with indifference to the suffering of those being excessively punished. Even if they commit drug offenses, persons of privilege can often arrange to keep themselves out of jail. The threat of prison has become in the '90s what the draft was the Vietnam war - a burden for the typical person from which the elite are nearly exempt. During the Vietnam years, American society pronounced itself willing to oppose communism at any cost, but if that had really been so, the affluent would have borne an equal share. Now, in the war on drugs and crime, society has pronounced itself willing to impose any level of punishment. But if that were really so, the affluent would be as likely to be jailed, and that is not happening. From the standpoint of the upper middle class, the crime crackdown is almost all dividend: the more sleazy people taken off the street and locked away the better.)
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Sunday, April 25, 1999:
Hemp Issue Divides Farmers, the Law (The Register-Guard, in Eugene, covers Thursday's hearing by the Oregon House of Representatives' Agriculture and Forestry Committee on an industrial hemp bill. Rep. Floyd Prozanski, the Eugene Democrat who is sponsoring HB 2933, predicted that industrial hemp would become legal and widespread within five years. He also told a Senate panel that Oregon could become a center for high-quality hemp seed, much as it is now for grass seed. Plus the URL for an online audio recording of testimony on HB 2933.)
Town questions inaction in police case (The Oregonian says residents of Gold Hill, Oregon, wonder why their city council was slow to put Police Chief David M. Crawford on leave after his indictment on five criminal charges. According to Alan Scharn, deputy director of the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, "In most police agencies in the state of Oregon, the mere fact that you've been arrested or indicted on these charges means you'd be out the door on your ear before you could bat an eye.")
Marijuana as Medicine: Let's Make the Law Work (A staff editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle says the 25-member task force appointed by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer shows state government finally appears ready to properly implement Proposition 215. More than 70 modern scientific studies and 2000 years of anecdotal evidence support claims that pot is a helpful folk medicine for people suffering from AIDS, cancer, glaucoma, migraine headaches and an array of other ailments.)
Drug War Unfairly Targets Black Community (An op-ed in the Dallas Morning News by a member of the Drug Policy Forum of Texas rebuts pro-drug-war statements to the Greater Dallas Crime Commission by New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, as well as Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk's proud assertion that there are no major problems between the police department and the city's minority communities. Drug-crime statistics for 1998 and data obtained through the Open Records Act, the North Texas Council of Governments, and the National Institute of Drug Abuse reveal that Dallas police are clearly and unfairly targeting the black community in the drug war.)
Most Nations Permit Growing of Industrial Hemp (The Knoxville News-Sentinel, in Tennessee, interviews Erwin "Bud" Sholts, director of agriculture at the University of Wisconsin and chairman of the North American Industrial Hemp Council. "Industrial hemp is grown in Canada, Germany, England - all over the place. Why is it illegal here? The United States is an island of denial in a sea of acceptance," Sholts said. Law enforcement officers claim they can't tell the difference between industrial hemp and marijuana. But proponents say the methods of cultivation are so different anyone can tell the difference. "Industrial hemp seed is planted with a grain drill about six inches apart so as to produce a lot of stalk," Sholts said. "Pot is planted 2 and 2 1/2 feet apart to produce a low bushy plant with leaves and buds. If you plant industrial hemp too close to marijuana, it will cross pollinate and ruin the marijuana crop," he said. "It's actually a marijuana fighter. The cross pollination leads to a lower THC.")
Another Victory For Medical Marijuana (Rolling Stone magazine examines the political implications of the March 17 Institute of Medicine report. What drew the most attention was the IOM's finding that some of the 66 cannabinoids found in smoked marijuana have "potential therapeutic value . . . moderately well-suited for certain conditions." Less noticed, however, was the report's point-by-point dismantling of anti-marijuana arguments made by drug warriors, including the gateway theory, the supposed abuse potential of marijuana, the notion that medical use of marijuana will lead to wider recreational use, and the idea that marijuana is dangerous to its users. All of this doesn't help McCaffrey's War on Drugs, which in 1997 resulted in 695,000 marijuana arrests, 87 percent of them for possession.)
Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies, Year 5, No. 16 (A summary of European and international drug policy news, from CORA, in Italy)
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Saturday, April 24, 1999:
"Marijuana is Medicine" Rally April 30th in Salem (Stormy Ray, a multiple sclerosis patient and chief petitioner for the voter-approved Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, urges advocates for medical marijuana patients to help solve the supply problem by lobbying legislators and showing up Friday at the capitol to support House Joint Memorial 10, a resolution introduced by state representative Jo Ann Bowman that would ask Congress to reschedule marijuana. Plus the current text of HJM 10, and addresses for a short list of key legislators.)
Can you help? (A list subscriber summarizes Friday's 10-minute Oregon legislative hearing on HJM 10, and also asks you to lobby lawmakers. The chair of the committee, Rep. Mannix, indicated the rescheduling resolution would stand a better chance of passing out of committee if the wording was based from the standpoint that OMMA is the law and that marijuana in Schedule I is federal interference with Oregon Law. With amendments, the resolution may get a hearing before an April 30 deadline.)
Juvenile crime package revived (The Oregonian notes a group of Republican Oregon state senators seeking to exploit for political purposes Tuesday's bloody rampage at a Colorado high school has supposedly "revived" Gov. John Kitzhaber's flagging $30 million "juvenile crime" prevention package and vowed to fight for its success. In addition to $30 million for at-risk youths, the plan also includes $20 million for alcohol- and drug-abuse prevention programs and $7 million for early childhood intervention. That the senators couldn't really care less about the high-school kids massacred in Littleton is evidenced by the comments of Sen. Gene Derfler, R-Salem, who says any money spent on prevention efforts after age 10 is "simply wasted." The newspaper fails both to describe the "drug abuse prevention" programs to be funded, and to explain why state politicians are linking "drugs" with school shootings, when the only drugs involved seem to be antidepresssants.)
Judge shuts tap on strip club's free beer (The Oregonian says Marion County Circuit Judge Albin Norblad issued a temporary restraining order Friday that prohibits Scores Entertainment Inc., in Salem, from giving away beer. The "nude dance club" doesn't have a state liquor license but argues that it doesn't need one as long as it doesn't receive any financial consideration for the beer. The TRO remains in effect pending a May 18 hearing.)
Judge Rules Marijuana Test Invalid (A news release from best-selling author Peter McWilliams says that after two days of exhaustive medical and scientific testimony, federal Judge James McMahon ruled Friday in Los Angeles in the case of Todd McCormick, McWilliams' co-defendant, that McCormick's bail should not be revoked because there is no way to distinguish between Marinol and marijuana in drug tests. McCormick originally secured bail after agreeing to submit to urine tests the government claimed would distinguish between Marinol and THC-V, which is unique to marijuana. McWilliams also notes the Society of Neuroscience in October 1997 said "New research shows that substances similar to or derived from marijuana, known as cannabinoids, could benefit more than 97 million Americans who experience some form of pain each year.")
Arizona Shows The Way On Drugs (A New York Times staff editorial recaps Wednesday's news about the Arizona Supreme Court study documenting the benefits accruing from Proposition 200's requirement that drug offenders receive treatment instead of prison. The newspaper says Congress and the legislatures of New York and other states should take heed.)
Drug Smugglers To Get No Dignity (The Globe and Mail, in Toronto, says the Supreme Court of Canada ruled yesterday that subjecting travellers to a "bedpan vigil" is a fair price to pay in balancing the right to individual privacy with the state interest in detecting "drugs." The ruling overturned the acquittal of Isaac Monney, a citizen of Ghana who arrived in Canada on a flight from Switzerland and was detained in a "drug loo facility" before providing officers with the self-incriminating evidence they were hoping for.)
Easing Drug Laws (The New York Times briefly notes yesterday's news about a Swiss government commission recommending that the sale and use of marijuana be legalized under certain conditions.)
Swiss Panel Calls For Marijuana Legalization (A similarly brief Orange County Register version)
News From Portugal - The Government Announces Decriminalisation (A list subscriber forwards a correspondent's e-mail saying the Portuguese government announced two days ago a decision by the council of ministers to decriminalise the use and the possession of drugs for personal use, replacing jail terms with fines, community service and driving restrictions. The decision appears framed in the new national drug strategy.)
The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 88 (The Drug Reform Coordination Network's original online drug policy newsmagazine features - HEA reform campaign gets boost; Report: District of Columbia drug policy a disaster; Heroin in Australia: a conversation with Brian McConnell of Families and Friends for Drug Law Reform; North Dakota becomes first state to legalize hemp cultivation; Oregon Supreme Court to review forfeiture as double jeopardy; Book: "No Equal Justice, Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System"; Report: In search of a new ethic for treating patients with chronic pain; Seminar in NYC, Friday, 5/28)
DrugSense Weekly, No. 95 (The original summary of drug policy news from DrugSense opens with the weekly Feature Article - Learn from the Civil Rights Movement: Get organized, by Kevin B. Zeese, president of Common Sense for Drug Policy. The Weekly News in Review features several articles about Drug War Policy, Law Enforcement & Prisons, including - U-Conn star El-amin faces a drug charge; Srawberry arrested for drugs, solicitation; Study slams corruption on border; City settles firefighter's suit in controversial drug case; Fairfax teacher suspended after arrest on drug charge in D.C.; Former cop in court; 2 correction officers to serve time; Firefighter's back after fine for pot; Students face drug charges; 89-year-old man sentenced for selling crack; Ex-candidate faces trial in medical marijuana case; and, Voices of our time: Joseph D. McNamara. Articles about Cannabis, Hemp and Medicinal Marijuana include - Marijuana hoax; Ready for medical marijuana research; and, Cannabis has herbal benefits research can help unlock. International News includes - US company to build 2 plants for hemp processing in Canada; and, Treatment demand stretches clinics. The DrugSense Volunteer of the Month features Gerald Sutliff. The weekly Hot Off The 'Net directs your browser to the Marijuana Policy Project's highlights of the IOM report; "Marijuana Rx: The Patient's Fight for Medicinal Pot" online; and an online transcript of the recent rebroadcast of "Sex Drugs and Consenting Adults." The Fact of the Week documents that 1 in 3 young blacks is under the control of the criminal justice system. And the Quote of the Week cites Horace Mann)
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Friday, April 23, 1999:
California Police Forced To Return Marijuana (A Reuters article in the Press Democrat, in Santa Rosa, says Christopher Brown sauntered into the Ukiah sheriff's office Thursday and walked out with a half pound bag of marijuana after the California Supreme Court dismissed the government's contention that any order forcing police to return the marijuana would transform officers into "drug pushers." Prohibition agents had confiscated Brown's medicine during a 1997 raid on his house in Willits, about 120 miles north of San Francisco.)
Arcata Police Chief Finds 'Local Solution' To Pot Law (The Sacramento Bee looks favorably on the registry system for medical marijuana patients instituted by Mel Brown, the top cop in Arcata, California.)
Pot Grower Has Home Confiscated (The Montana Standard, in Butte, says Duane D. Gray, a U.S. Marine veteran, tried painkillers, lithium and Prozac, watched what he ate and soaked in mineral-filled springs, but nothing worked like marijuana to relieve the nausea, fatigue and muscle pains he suffered from Gulf War Syndrome. On Thursday, Butte District Court Judge James Purcell gave him a three-year suspended sentence, fined him $1,000 and confiscated his home for growing 77 marijuana plants.)
Decriminalize Therapeutic Marijuana Now, MP Says (According to the Vancouver Sun, in British Columbia, Bernard Bigras of the Bloc Quebecois said Thursday during a visit to Vancouver that Ottawa should not wait until the completion of clinical trials before it decriminalizes marijuana for therapeutic reasons. Bigras's medical-marijuana bill is to be debated in June and he is on a national tour to raise the issue. Bigras said many MPs are still resistant to the idea of any reform, but the Quebec member of Parliament expects strong support from other Bloc members, the NDP, many Tories, some Liberals and Reformers, and national groups representing people with AIDS, hemophiliacs and senior citizens.)
Cops Stir Up The Great Pot Debate (The Ottawa Sun says Canadian Parliamentary Bureau Justice Minister Anne McLellan is receptive to a pitch by the country's top cops to decriminalize possession of small amounts of pot and hash. "We're going to take a look at this and we'll see where it leads us," McLellan said yesterday.)
Senior Police Officer Calls For Rethink On Cannabis (The Herald, in Britain, says Mr Tom Wood, deputy chief constable of Lothian and Borders Police, told a major drugs conference in Edinburgh yesterday that Scotland's Parliament should re-examine society's attitudes toward cannabis. "Speaking personally, I do not and will not support the legalisation of cannabis. I merely think it is time to take a fresh look at drugs," he said. Mr Wood's comments on the cannabis issue came just days after Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Jim Wallace announced he remained "open-minded" on the legalisation of cannabis when he outlined his party's drugs strategy.)
Swiss Recommend Legalizing Cannabis (According to the Associated Press, a government-appointed panel in Bern recommended Friday that Switzerland legalize the sale and use of marijuana - but with controls to keep the nation from becoming a drug haven. The committee's recommendation to the Cabinet will be considered as part of an ongoing study to revise Switzerland's drug laws, but would probably have to receive approval in a national referendum.)
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Thursday, April 22, 1999:
NORML Weekly Press Release (North Dakota becomes first state to legalize hemp cultivation; Drug czar's office endorses arresting, jailing medical marijuana smokers despite report backing drug's value; Hawaiian hemp research cultivation bill in final stages; Canada's parliament resumes historic medical marijuana debate)
CMA Lobbies State Legislators (Synapse, a publication of the medical school at the University of California at San Francisco, describes the recent meeting of 500 members of the California Medical Association regarding various proposed state health care legislation, particularly the medical marijuana task force established by Attorney General Bill Lockyer. In addressing CMA members, Lockyer seemed to suggest that physicians could approve patients' use of medical marijuana without fearing federal intervention, if they did it quietly. He summarized his stance as, "We won't go looking, but don't bring yourselves to our attention.")
Judge Suspends Baldwin Medical Marijuana Trial (The Auburn Journal, in California, says the trial of Michael and Georgia Baldwin was put on hold for one week Wednesday morning in order for Judge James D. Garbolino to read the meager case law on Proposition 215. Although both Baldwins have recommendations from their physicians, Placer County sheriff's detectives arrested them Sept. 23 for 146 plants at their Granite Bay home.)
Hemp: Now We're Wearing It, Eating It, Even Building With It (The Orange County Register says hemp is so hot that many hemp manufacturers don't even bother anymore with doper jokes.)
Controversy: The Legal Ties That Bind Hemp Farming (The Los Angeles Times says states are leading the drive to re-introduce industrial hemp production. On Saturday, North Dakota became the first state to permit the growth and sale of industrial hemp, although growers will still need permits from the Drug Enforcement Agency. Sales of hemp products are booming. In 1993, worldwide retail sales amounted to only a few million dollars. In 1997, sales surpassed $75 million, according to HempTech, a hemp research organization based in Sebastapol, California.)
Possible April 20 (420) Connection to Pot Smoking Sub-Culture In Littleton Tragedy, FRC Says (A revealing press release from the drug-warrior Family Research Council, distributed by PR Newswire, jumps the gun by suggesting Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the two teen-agers who committed mass murder-suicide Tuesday at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, were pot smokers celebrating "4-20" rather than abstemious Nazi sympathizers whose only "drug" use involved a pharmaceutical antidepressant.)
Reno at Large - U.S. Would Do Well To Prescribe Truce In 'Other' Drug War (An op-ed in Newsday, in New York, by U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno says America is fighting not one but two parallel and exceedingly costly drug wars. One is against suppliers of mood-altering illegal substances. The other is among manufacturers of mood-altering legal substances. The suppliers seem to be winning both wars. And the cost to the nation - measured in bulging jails, prohibition-associated violence, clogged courts, the rising cost of health care and a growing uninsured population - is huge. But Reno offers no evidence that the government is doing anything but abetting the problem, and offers no solutions to the systemic problems she presides over.)
'Just Say No': An Exchange (A letter to the editor of the New York Review of Books from Sue Rusch, often cited as the leader of the "parents' movement" that ended marijuana-law reform efforts in the 1980s, denies an allegation in "The Fix," by Michael Massing, that the movement ended a policy initiated in the Nixon administration to aggressively provide treatment to heroin addicts. Rusch's protests are ably dismissed by Malcolm Gladwell, the author of NYRB's review of Massing's book.)
High On Fragrance (The Washington Post takes note of the moisturizing creams and soaps made with industrial hemp being sold by 300 Body Shop stores in the United States. Hempseed's protein-rich oil contains a fatty acid that penetrates dry skin. Body Shop, the trendy retailer of skin, body care and fragrance products in 47 countries, pushes the marijuana connection with a musky fragrance and suggestive pitch and packaging. "They can't arrest your skin," says one slogan. "The best moisturizer in the world and we promise you won't get the munchies," says another.)
Police Like Pot-Penalty Plan (According to the Vancouver Province, in British Columbia, Vancouver police Chief Bruce Chambers says he's taking a "serious look" at supporting a plan to decriminalize possession of small quantities of cannabis products. The proposal was approved last week by directors of the Association of Canadian Police Chiefs. RCMP spokesman Sgt. Andre Guertin said the Mounties support the plan, because it would reduce a court backlog and free police to investigate more serious offences.)
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Wednesday, April 21, 1999:
Female inmates need protection (A letter to the editor of the Oregonian from a board member of Amnesty International USA seeks support for Oregon House Bill 3596, introduced by Rep. Kathy Lowe, D-Milwaukie, which would criminalize sexual misconduct between guards and inmates. Male prison and jail guards in this country fondle, rape and coerce sex from female inmates. Amnesty International was instrumental in getting custodial sexual-misconduct legislation passed in three states this year - Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington. Oregon is one of the few states that still do not have statutory protection for female prisoners.)
Don't link tobacco, schools (A letter to the editor of the Oregonian says the proposal by Oregon Treasurer Jim Hill to cash out the state's interest in its settlement with tobacco companies, thereby raising money to pay school costs, defers finding another source of education funding to the next biennium and leaves the tobacco-related health costs to be paid later, too.)
$10 Million Claim Filed In Pot Arrest: Cancer patient had prescription (According to the Sacramento Bee, Robert DeArkland, 71, of Fair Oaks, California, who suffers from prostate cancer and arthritis, filed the claim against Sacramento County in response to prohibition agents from both Sacramento and Placer counties raiding his home last October and seizing 13 marijuana plants, $420 in cash and a scale. "I might not get a dime, but at least it may stop other people from being harassed," DeArkland said. He added that he would file a lawsuit against the county if his claim is rejected.)
Police brutality at drum circle in Salt Lake City, Utah (A list subscriber forwards a first-person account of Sunday's confrontation that differs considerably from the Salt Lake Tribune's version.)
Study: Drug Treatment Cuts Crime (The Associated Press says an Arizona Supreme Court study commissioned by the state legislature found that the mandatory treatment provision for nonviolent, first- and second-time drug offenders included in Proposition 200 led to reduced crime, saved taxpayers more than $2.56 million, and resulted in 78 percent of participants later testing drug-free. The 1996 law, which also allows doctors to prescribe marijuana, was repealed by the legislature but reapproved last fall in a second vote.)
Arizona's Prop. 200 Saving Millions of Dollars, Cutting Drug Abuse, Says New Report by State Supreme Court (The PR Newswire version)
Arizona Finds Cost Savings in Treating Drug Offenders (The New York Times version)
Drug Diversion Law In Arizona Paying Dividends (The Los Angeles Times version)
Study Backs Treatment, Not Prison, For Addicts (The Chicago Tribune version in the Seattle Times)
Defendant Again Represents Himself In Marijuana Case (The Dubuque Telegraph Herald, in Iowa, says Gregory Sharkey argued at his retrial Tuesday that the plants he was busted for in October 1995 were just ditchweed and he was maliciously prosecuted. Sharkey was first sentenced to multiple 15-year sentences for 380 grams of marijuana and 66 marijuana plants. But in 1998 the Iowa Supreme Court reversed the conviction, saying his Sixth Amendment right to counsel was violated because a sufficient inquiry into his understanding of legal representation was not conducted.)
The Double Standard - Inequality In Criminal Justice May Be A Good Thing For The Favored Classes (The New York Times reviews the book "No Equal Justice: Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System," by David Cole. "No Equal Justice" makes a strong case that we have tolerated a law enforcement strategy that "depends on the exploitation of race and class divisions." Cole offers three solutions. The first two admit the mistake, then revamp the rules to reduce the influence of race and class - but are probably unrealistic, especially as the new rules could reduce "the rights that the privileged now enjoy." Cole's third solution endorses "community-based criminal justice," the antithesis of the "tough on crime" approach, and would also be a tough sell.)
Drug Law (A staff editorial in the Charlotte Observer, in North Carolina, endorses a proposed local anti-paraphernalia ordinance, even though a similar state law already exists.)
Cops Can't Keep Up With B.C. Drug Trade (The Kelowna Daily Courier says figures compiled by the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics show that in 1997, British Columbia had 13 per cent of Canada's population but was responsible for 25 per cent all the cannabis "incidents" in the country, 28 per cent of cocaine offences and 61 per cent of all heroin incidents. B.C.'s rate of drug charges is 26 per cent higher than the national average. But the drug problem is so prevalent, fewer than one in three cannabis offences resulted in criminal charges.)
Police chiefs want possession of all narcotics decriminalized - Fight court backlog (According to the National Post, the newspaper has learned that Canada's police chiefs have recommended that the federal government decriminalize possession of small quantities of all illegal narcotics, including heroin. The proposal was approved last week by the board of directors of the Association of Canadian Police Chiefs and will be submitted to the membership for a vote later this year. The recommendation is meant to clear the courts of a backlog of drug cases and allow police to concentrate resources on more serious crimes.)
Arthritis Drug Linked To 10 Deaths In US (According to the Scotsman, reports handed to the US Food and Drug Administration by the Wall Street Journal showed that Celebrex, a painkiller patented by Monsanto and manufactured by GD Searle, its St Louis-based subsidiary, has been linked to ten deaths and 11 cases of gastrointestinal bleeding in its first three months on the US market. More than two million people have taken Celebrex for osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis since January. Scarlett Lee Foster, a Monsanto spokeswoman, said "You can't draw any conclusions from the adverse incident reports.")
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Tuesday, April 20, 1999:
Report on April 15 hearing regarding registry system for medical marijuana (Sandee Burbank of Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse summarizes the recent public meeting in Portland sponsored by the Oregon Health Division regarding implementation of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act. Plus, details about the "Marijuana is Medicine" rally April 30 in Salem.)
Los Angeles County Deputies Raid Andrea Nagy (A list subscriber forwards the marijuananews.com version of yesterday's news, interspersed with comments by Steve Kubby.)
A Grass-Roots Effort To Legalize Hemp (The Santa Barbara News-Press, in California, spreads the news about industrial hemp as related by Al Espino, the owner of Hempwise, an Isla Vista store that sells hemp clothing. The article also publicizes the hemp bash today in Anisq' Oyo' Park in the heart of Isla Vista. According to a report in the Washington Post, worldwide sales have gone from $5 million in 1993 to $75 million in 1995.)
Drums of Disapproval Are Still Pounding (The Salt Lake Tribune, in Utah, says local police armed with nightsticks, riot gear and gas launchers swept drum-circle celebrants out of Liberty Park Sunday afternoon, issuing citations to 16 people for alcohol violations, possession of marijuana, drug paraphernalia or distribution of drugs and one for not keeping his dog on a leash. "We cannot afford to let that park deteriorate to open lawlessness, to where drugs and weapons are being brought into that park," Police Chief Ruben Ortega said Monday, without explaining who besides police had weapons. Police allege up to 150 people taunted them as they busted one man for selling marijuana. Many drum circlers saw it differently. Only a few incorrigibles taunted the police, they say. Some in the drum crowd say they never heard an order to disperse. Several in the crowd were hit with nightsticks, although no serious injuries were reported.)
Mass E-Mail Protest Targets Rule Requiring Reports (The Salt Lake Tribune says civil libertarians and other groups are flush with their success in forcing regulators to drop the proposed "Know Your Customer" rules on tracking bank customers' habits, and are organizing a campaign to end reporting requirements for cash transactions. Legislation proposed by Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, would repeal the Bank Secrecy Act, which requires banks to report customers' cash transactions of $10,000 or more, as well as "suspicious activities" to law-enforcement authorities.)
Norwalk Drug-Ed Officer Charged (The Des Moines Register says Thomas Nolan, a police sergeant and DARE officer in Norwalk, Iowa, was charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia after the Marion-Warren County drug task force searched his home Sunday. Sgt. Dave Murillo of the Des Moines Police Department, who lives in Norwalk, said he learned from one Norwalk officer that "narcotics" evidence had been disappearing from the Norwalk department.)
Veteran State Police Officer Pleads Guilty To Corruption Charges (UPI says Richard Corey Jr., of East Falmouth, a veteran Massachusetts state police officer, pleaded guilty today to charges of taking payoffs from a cocaine dealer in exchange for feeding him confidential information about police undercover agents and informants.)
Massachusetts State Police Sergeant Pleads Guilty (A lengthier version on PR Newswire)
N.J. Report Admits Racial Profiling (According to the Associated Press, the New Jersey Attorney General's office acknowledged Tuesday that some state troopers have engaged in "racial profiling" in pulling over minority motorists. The state is also dropping its appeal of a 1996 court ruling that troopers demonstrated racial bias in making arrests along the turnpike. The court decision could affect dozens of pending criminal cases.)
Useful excerpts from the IOM medicinal marijuana report (The Marijuana Policy Project, in Washington, D.C., publicizes its new online guide, "Questions about medicinal marijuana answered by the Institute of Medicine's report." Despite a statement at the IOM's March 17 news conference by Principal Investigator Dr. John Benson that "we concluded that there are limited circumstances in which we recommend smoking marijuana for medical uses," and a Gallup poll conducted March 19-21 that showed 73 percent of Americans support "making marijuana legally available for doctors to prescribe in order to reduce pain and suffering," the latest issue of Psychiatric News says the Drug Czar's office still endorses arresting medical marijuana users. Chuck Thomas of the MPP said that at first, the drug warriors pretended to like the IOM report, but for the past month they've been ignoring it and outright maligning it.)
Pot Advocate Called Refugee From U.S. 'War' (The Vancouver Province, in British Columbia, says a legal battle began yesterday in the B.C. Supreme Court to keep Renee Boje, a 29-year-old California woman, from being deported to the U.S. to face marijuana-related charges in connection with the 1997 Bel Air bust of Todd McCormick.)
Western Canadian Hemp Acres Could Be High As A Kite (Resource News says good yields from the first Canadian hemp crop and depressed prices for traditional crops like canola and wheat will fuel dramatic growth in hemp production this summer on the Western Canadian prairies. Bruce Brolley, a new crops specialist with the Manitoba provincial agriculture department, says he's estimating about 15,000 acres will be planted in the province this spring, up from approximately 1,300 acres last summer.)
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Monday, April 19, 1999:
HJM 10, the Oregon Medical Marijuana Rescheduling Memorial (A list subscriber says the resolution before the state house of representatives asking Congress to reschedule marijuana to make it available as medicine will receive a "tap-tap" hearing this week to keep it alive.)
Andrea Nagy Raided (A list subscriber says the founder of the now-defunct medical marijuana dispensary in Ventura County, California, was busted by an unspecified agency today for her and her mother's 64 plants.)
Industrial Hemp Legal in North Dakota (A list subscriber forwards an unsourced press release announcing that Governor Schafer on Saturday signed HB 1428, which reportedly means "any person in this state may plant, grow, harvest, possess, process, sell, and buy industrial hemp." North Dakota's Senate passed HB 1428 by a vote of 44-3 on April 12. The week before the House passed the bill 86-7.)
U.S. Drug Policy, Problem Need Fix (According to an editorial in the Topeka Capital-Journal by Gene Smith, Barry McCaffrey, who says he didn't ask for his job as drug czar, came to Kansas last week to promote the national drug control strategy, spending nearly an hour with the newspaper's editorial board. General McCaffrey's attempt to tone down the language of the "war on drugs" may be too late. The past several years show the already tattered Bill of Rights may have suffered permanent damage. Maybe the white-haired ex-general can find a way to both wage the drug war and preserve the Constitution. "Let us pray that he does. And that, like a physician, he first does no harm.")
Rally Held In Houghton In Support Of Legalization Of Marijuana (WLUC, the NBC affiliate in Marquette, Michigan, says Michigan Tech University students associated with the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws held their annual campus rally Sunday.)
Ritalin Abuse Is Rampant In American Schools Today (Syndicated commentator Betsy Hart writes in the Standard-Times, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, about an indictment of Ritalin in the most recent issue of the Heritage Foundation's Policy Review magazine - not a periodical most medical school libraries subscribe to. Hart emphasizes the DEA's classification of methylphenidate as a "stimulant," ignoring its role as one of the first antidepressants, and the doctors, pharmacologists and educators who could explain that, for psychiatric patients, including kids with Attention Deficit Disorder, it's not a stimulant at all. Unfortunately, Hart misses the boat by failing to endorse the sort of research that could reveal Ritalin's real hazards, for example, a longitudinal study of a representative sample of longterm users. Plus commentary from various list subscribers.)
2 N.J. State Troopers Indicted (The Associated Press says a grand jury today in Trenton, New Jersey, indicted John Hogan and James Kenna, the two cops who opened fire last April on a van on the New Jersey Turnpike containing four unarmed minority men. The two troopers were accused of falsifying records by misrepresenting the race of the motorists they had stopped and searched, and of illegally searching vehicles and occupants in the three months prior to the shooting.)
DEA: Status of the proposed rescheduling of dronabinol (Jon Gettman, the former director of NORML who has been petitioning the Drug Enforcement Administration since 1995 to reschedule marijuana, based on the government's own science, shares a letter from the DEA indicating his objection to reclassifying Marinol as a Schedule 3 drug, apart from marijuana, is causing the DEA "concern" because, "by intertwining Mr. Gettman's petition with the proposed transfer of Marinol, the respective issues" have become "confused," a word Gettman would probably replace with "linked." Then the DEA has the incredible gall to imply that Gettman's objections may be harming sick people.)
Statement on Marinol (Jon Gettman and High Times magazine officially repond to the DEA's "confusion" about the relationship between Marinol - pure THC - which the DEA wants to move to Schedule 3, and marijuana, which the DEA wants to keep in Schedule 1.)
It's Time to Open the Doors of Our Prisons (An op-ed in Newsweek by Rufus King, a Washington lawyer and perhaps the longest-active drug-policy-reformer in the United States, explains how freeing first-time drug offenders now would make economic sense.)
Jamaican Spring Break: Sun, Sea and Sex (The Salt Lake Tribune says about 20,000 students from northeastern U.S. universities are expected to spend their spring vacations at Jamaica's three main resort towns by the end of April - up from 13,000 last year - lured by the promise of hot sunshine, cool seas, all-night parties and plenty of booze. For some, an additional attraction is "ganja," or marijuana.)
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Sunday, April 18, 1999:
Friends pay tribute to Brownie Mary's life (The San Francisco Examiner says a candlelight vigil in the Castro District honored "Brownie" Mary Rathbun, the late activist who helped launch the medical marijuana movement by baking marijuana brownies for AIDS patients. "Brownie Mary was my friend," San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan told the crowd while standing on the back of a red pickup truck. "Brownie Mary was a hero. She will one day be remembered as the Florence Nightingale of the medical marijuana movement." Hallinan then pledged that as long as he is DA, "Nobody is going to prosecute in the city and county of San Francisco anyone who uses and cultivates marijuana with a legitimate doctor's recommendation.")
Ready For Medical Marijuana Research (A staff editorial in the Oakland Tribune says the "unruly debate" over medical marijuana persists because the federal government is stubbornly obstructing the will of the people. Science is ready and the people have spoken, but are the bureaucrats ready?)
These are your kids on drugs (An op-ed in the San Francisco Examiner by Steven Okazaki, an Academy Award-winning film maker who produced "Black Tar Heroin: The Dark End of the Street" for HBO, criticizes the White House drug czar's $1 billion anti-drug advertising campaign. "Not one of the kids I talked to was ignorant of the dangers of drug use when he or she began." Certainly, prevention is important. But it's not prevention to tell kids to stay away from drugs while we ignore the circumstances of their lives. Don't expect things to get better as long as policy makers refuse to back off the tough-on-crime bluster and address the frayed social services net and lack of treatment options for addicts.)
Bad Marijuana Bill (A letter to the editor of the Daily Herald, in Arlington Heights, Illinois, from the director of the Illinois State Crime Commission, pans HB 792, which would make it illegal for anyone to transmit "cannabis information" through the Internet. The crime commission oftentimes finds itself delivering new, sometimes groundbreaking information about illegal drugs. Supporters of the measure admit that HB 792 contains a number of "gray areas" that would have to be addressed by the courts.)
El-Amin's Joint More Important Than War In Kosovo? Get A Grip (Republican-American columnist Ed Daigneault, in Waterbury, Connecticut, says hysteria surrounded the bust of University of Connecticut basketball star Khalid El-Amin this week. El-Amin's possession of a tiny amount of marijuana became the lead story on local television news and received prominent play in Connecticut newspapers. Daigneault doesn't mention that if convicted, El-Amin faces the loss of student aid under the recently approved Higher Education Act.)
El-Amin Gets Warm Reception (The Charlotte Observer, in North Carolina, says Khalid El-Amin, arrested for marijuana on Tuesday, was clearly the fan favorite Saturday during a parade in Hartford honoring the University of Connecticut's NCAA championship basketball team.)
Billboards Come Down In 45 States (The News-Times, in Connecticut, says a settlement with that takes effect Friday will remove all billboard and transit advertisements for four tobacco companies' cigarettes. The settlement also obliges tobacco companies to turn over the remaining time on their advertising leases to the states' attorneys general so the states can run anti-amoker propaganda. Until now, the tobacco companies spent $300 million a year in outdoor advertising.)
D.C. Medical Marijuana Referendum Is In Limbo (The Kansas City Star describes how Congress quashed the results from Initiative 59 in Washington, D.C. last November. After five months, a federal judge still has not ruled on whether anyone should see them.)
JAX Election Scam! (A bulletin from the Florida Cannabis Action Network says petitioners for a medical marijuana ballot measure being sponsored by Floridians for Medical Rights were once again prohibited from gathering signatures Tuesday near a polling station in Jacksonville, despite a federal court order prompted by similar repression November 3. A local law enforcement official allegedly threatened to arrest petitioners and another stood by as a Baptist preacher threatened them with violence.)
ACM-Bulletin of 18 April 1999 (An English-language bulletin from the Association for Cannabis as Medicine, in Cologne, Germany, features news about an Australian Survey on the medical use of cannabis; a science report on the Interaction of anandamide with dopamine, a basis for the treatment of movement disorders and schizophrenia; and a California town's attempt to implement the voter-approved medical marijuana law.)
Russian Police Make Major Pot Bust (According to the Associated Press, the ITAR-Tass news agency said Sunday that police seized 1,320 pounds of marijuana from a truck crossing into Russia from the Central Asian republic of Kazakstan.)
Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies, Year 5, No. 15 (A summary of European and international drug policy news, from CORA, in Italy)
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Saturday, April 17, 1999:
Let Adults Decide What To Ingest (A letter to the editor of the Oregonian dismisses the newspaper's recent editorial on the Institute of Medicine report by asserting the primacy of individual rights.)
Strip club suit keeps beer flowing for free (The Oregonian says Scores, in Northeast Salem, wants to continue to give away beer without a liquor license and is asking a judge to declare the practice legal in a lawsuit filed Friday in Marion County Circuit Court. The flow of free beer resumed Friday after a day's halt for a special event.)
Hayden hearings (A bulletin from California NORML says SB 1261, a bill sponsored by state senator Tom Hayden that would create a commission on drug policy and violence, was approved by the senate Public Safety Committee on a 6-0 vote now goes to the Senate Appropriations Committee. Here's some swing votes to lobby.)
Cannabis Has Herbal Benefits Research Can Help Unlock (An op-ed by a professional herbalist in the Buffalo News, in New York, summarizes the pharmacological history of cannabis.)
Drug And Alcohol Use Jump In Nation's Capitol (According to an Associated Press article in the Standard-Times, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, which implies that alcohol is not a drug, District of Columbia Mayor Anthony Williams cited a new report by Drug Strategies that claimed adult cocaine and heroin use rates in the district were twice the national average in 1993, the latest figures available. The Drug Strategies report also showed heavy drinking was 50 percent more prevalent among adults in the capital than among their peers nationwide, and alcohol-related deaths in the district were double the national rate. Unfortunately, AP doesn't mention Drug Strategies' methodology or its agenda.)
Study Finds Drug Abuse At Heart Of City's Ills (The Washington Post version is similarly one-sided and uncritical.)
'Crisis' Of Black Males Gets High-Profile Look (The Washington Post says nationally, one in three young black men is under the supervision of the criminal justice system, and the rate approaches 50 percent in some states. In all, 12 states and the District of Columbia imprison blacks at rates 10 times those of whites, according to the latest government figures. The composite picture has become so alarming that the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights made it the subject of an unusual two-day conference this week in Washington, D.C.)
New Drugs For Old Habits (The Economist, in Britain, says advances in the understanding of how alcohol, cocaine, heroin and nicotine affect the brain at the cellular and molecular level are leading to new approaches to treating substance abuse. A few companies such as Merck and DuPont have already taken the plunge, at least for alcohol abuse.)
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Friday, April 16, 1999:
Oregon legislative hearings on HB 2933, for industrial hemp, and HJM 10, for medical marijuana (A list subscriber says a hearing has been scheduled for Rep. Prozanski's hemp bill at 8:30 am Thursday, April 22, in Hearing Room D at the capitol. A hearing on Rep. Bowman's medical marijuana resolution is also likely to take place by April 23.)
Oregon high court OKs double-jeopardy review (The Oregonian says the state Supreme Court agreed Thursday to hear an appeal claiming double jeopardy in a 1994 Portland case involving the civil forfeiture of a house and a criminal indictment based on the same marijuana arrest. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that civil forfeiture is not punishment for purposes of considering a double-jeopardy claim. But the Oregon Supreme Court never has reviewed the state civil forfeiture statutes under the state Constitution. According to Stephen Kanter, a professor at Northwestern School of Law at Lewis & Clark College, in Portland, the Oregon Constitution's ban on double jeopardy is broader than the U.S. Constitution's.)
Control Dispute Reappears At Jail Meeting (The Oregonian says about 300 beds for inmates undergoing treatment for alcohol or other drug abuse are being considered for a proposed 225-bed Multnomah County jail along North Portland's Bybee Lake. A county attorney pointed out a new wrinkle at a Board of Supervisors meeting Thursday. If the county puts the jail and the treatment beds in the same facility, it could create constitutional problems for inmates undergoing coerced treatment who have served out their sentences.)
Students questioned over drinking at model U.N. (The Associated Press says as many as 100 students from two Portland High Schools are being questioned about drinking at a model United Nations event last week at the University of Oregon in Eugene.)
Model U.N. students quizzed about drinking (The Oregonian version)
A Josephine County medical marijuana martyr (A rural Oregon man dying from hepatitus C, contracted in the Marines, rues his legacy.)
Seattle Million Marijuana March sign-making gathering April 26 (A list subscriber invites local activists to the Queen Anne Library to prepare for the Seattle rally scheduled in conjunction with others around the world Saturday, May 1.)
Norman Vroman's views on crime, punishment and paying taxes set him apart (The Santa Rosa Press Democrat says the newly elected district attorney in Mendocino County, California, has charted a new course in dealing with domestic violence, drunken driving and marijuana cultivation. Vroman also signaled a new tack toward asset forfeiture by ousting a veteran prosecutor who had handled such drug-related cases. He says there are two types of criminals, those who are predatory and violent, and those who make mistakes but who are basically benevolent. The newspaper says concern is stirring within law enforcement and victim advocacy groups, but that Vroman continues to receive strong support from both sides of Mendocino County's political spectrum, which share a common distrust of the government.)
Brownie Mary dies, but lives on in memorials this week (An obituary in the Bay Area Reporter for Mary Jane Rathbun quotes Dennis Person saying, "Mary adopted every gay kid in San Francisco. She was there before we knew what AIDS was, when it was referred to as 'GRID,' and even back then she always had a batch of brownies there to relieve the pain of her kids.")
Report: Lett Fails Drug Test (According to UPI, the New York Times is reporting that Leon Lett, the Dallas Cowboys' defensive tackle, has failed a drug test for the third time and faces a lifetime suspension from the National Football League. The Times report did not say what drug was involved. One of Lett's agents, Michael Claiborne, told the Dallas Morning News that his client had been tested an average of ten times a month for the past four years.)
Senate Hardens Pot-Sale Penalty (The Des Moines Register says a bill that would make it a felony to sell even the smallest quantity of marijuana in Iowa passed 34-11. The bill would also provide up to five years in prison for anyone who gave away one-half to 1 ounce of marijuana. Having already sailed through the House. It still needs Gov. Tom Vilsack's signature to take effect. Sen. Jeff Lamberti, R-Ankeny, who guided debate of the bill, said it treats marijuana more like other illicit drugs.)
Couple Sent To Prison For Growing Marijuana (The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, in Wisconsin, says Gary & Dawn Roth forfeited their 460-acre farm in Vernon County and were sentenced to 10 years, and three years and one month, respectively, after police found 4,244 marijuana plants in a converted hog barn in December.)
Illinois "Cannabis Info" bill dead (A list subscriber forwards a message from an ACLU-Illinois legislative coordinator predicting the demise of HB 792, which would make it a Class A misdemeanor to "transmit information by the Internet about a controlled substance knowing that the information will be used in furtherance of illegal activity.")
Four Co-Defenders Say Cop Was Drug Kingpin (The Chicago Tribune says four co-defendants pleaded guilty Thursday to drug conspiracy charges and accused Officer Joseph Miedzianowski, a Chicago policeman, of leading a double life as a cocaine kingpin who allegedly interfered with a murder investigation, armed gang members with semi-automatic weapons and betrayed fellow officers working undercover. In exchange for their cooperation and their testimony against Miedzianowski and others, the four likely will receive sharp reductions in prison sentences that could have sent them away for anywhere from 17 years to life.)
Merle Haggard Still Calls The Tune (A Boston Globe feature article on the country music legend from Bakersfield, California, quotes him saying "Okie from Muskogee" was a kind of joke, and that conservatives - especially the anti-marijuana forces - have gone too far. "America has sure gone to some sort of a police state in the last 10 years," he said. Thanks to "zero tolerance" policies by U.S. authorities at the Canadian border, he won't play in Canada now for fear of having tour buses forfeited.)
El-Amin Apologizes, Gets One Day Of Community Service (The Middletown Press says University of Connecticut basketball star Khalid El-Amin apologized Thursday to his family, his teammates and the people of Connecticut and Minnesota for his arrest on marijuana possession charges 15 days after leading the Huskies to their first national championship. The 19-year-old Minneapolis native was stopped for a traffic violation in Hartford and a small amount of marijuana was discovered during a pat-down search.)
89-Year-Old Man Sentenced For Selling Crack (The Associated Press says Brose Gearhart, who turns 90 today, was sentenced Monday to up to four years in prison for running a $1,000-a-week operation from his home in Saugerties, New York, and routinely trading drugs for sex with prostitutes.)
Strawberry Arrest Adds Bleak Note To Yankees (The Washington Post recounts yesterday's news about the cocaine bust of baseball legend Darryl Strawberry in Florida.)
Yankees' Strawberry Is Charged With Drug Possession, Solicitation (The Philadelphia Inquirer version)
Report: Strawberry Begged To Be Let Off (The UPI version says the Yankees slugger told Tampa police he was only joking when he offered $50 to an undercover police officer for sex. He also said he knew nothing about the cocaine that was allegedly found wrapped in a $20 bill in his wallet, claiming he found the money in the glove compartment of a borrowed car.)
Million Marijuana March web endeavor - millionmarijuanamarch.com (A list subscriber forwards information about the worldwide reform rally scheduled for Saturday, May 1. The world wide web is making it all possible.)
Zero tolerance sparks mutiny in police ranks (The Australian News Network says New York Police Commissioner Howard Safir, who has overseen a sharp drop in crime with a much-vaunted zero-tolerance policy, faces a mutiny in the ranks for turning the city into a "police state" where people despise men and women in uniform. The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, representing police officers, has cast a unanimous vote of no confidence in Safir amid rising concern about police misconduct.)
Salvos Stop Saying 'No' (The Australian says the Salvation Army has jettisoned its "just say no" approach to drug and alcohol rehabilitation, forcing Prime Minister John Howard's chief drug adviser and his best-known advocate of zero-tolerance policies to concede the agency had allowed itself to be depicted as too hardline.)
Moral Crusaders Must Be Ignored (A letter to the editor of the Canberra Times says prohibition never works. All that making a drug illegal does is put money into the hands of organised crime. The "war against drugs" does not exist. It is a war waged by certain sections of Australian society to impose their moral beliefs and drug of choice - alcohol - onto the rest of society.)
Treatment Demand Stretches Clinics (According to the Irish Examiner, representatives of the Eastern Health Board, the main treatment provider in Dublin, told the Dail Public Accounts Committee yesterday that at any one time, 600 people are on waiting lists seeking treatment for heroin addiction.)
WHO Cautious On Swiss Experiment (The Associated Press says a study sponsored by the United Nations concluded Friday that while Switzerland accepts the evidence that its heroin maintenance program leads to health gains for addicts, its claims must be tested carefully in "rich" countries before other "rich" countries copy the program. The World Health Organization criticized the Swiss for not including a control group, even though last year, 209 drug-related deaths were reported, down from a peak of 419 in 1992. The Swiss put the heroin program on a permanent legal footing last year.)
The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 87 (The Drug Reform Coordination Network's original online drug policy newsmagazine includes - HEA reform campaign online petition launched; Conyers reintroduces racial profiling legislation; Conyers introduces legislation to end federal disenfranchisement; Unarmed boy shot in drug raid; California legislators consider "three strikes" modification; Doctor's undertreatment of pain draws penalty; Nevada legislature mulls marijuana decriminalization bill; Seminars at the Lindesmith Center; and an editorial: Disparity dilemma)
DrugSense Weekly, No. 94 (The original summary of drug policy news from DrugSense opens with the weekly Feature Article - Kosovo is Small Potatoes Compared to the Drug War, by Mark Greer. The Weekly News in Review spotlights several articles about Drug War Policy, including - Drug survey of children finds middle school a pivotal time; Iowa report: 1 in 25 workers showed evidence of drug use; Editorial: the Fourth Amendment suffers at court's hands; 'Black tar' grimly covers S.F. streets; and, Number of drug deaths in Florida rises. Articles about Law Enforcement & Prisons include - As inmate population grows, so does a focus on children; Losing battle to revise drug law; The politics of punishment; Editorial: federalizing crime; and, Feds to join local war on drugs. Articles about Cannabis & Hemp include - Farmers show interest in hemp; Hemp-Ventura; High court hears man's case to grow marijuana for medicine; Marijuana as medicine - state bill inches forward; and, Movement on 215. International News includes - Australia: Bid for zero tolerance in schools doomed; Fugitive former governor of Mexican state charged with trafficking; and, Canadians favour the use of medical marijuana. The weekly "Hot Off The 'Net' feature points you to Steve Young's online book, "Maximizing Harm." The Fact of the Week uses the government's own statistics to document that mandatory minimums increase crime. The Quote of the Week shares an e-mail from British Member of Parliament Paul Flynn, who uses the DrugSense and MAP web sites.)
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Thursday, April 15, 1999:
NORML Weekly Press Release (NORML Foundation Family Custody Project victorious in New Jersey parenting rights case; Nevada decriminalization legislation clears first hurdle; Hawaii medical marijuana resolutions move forward in senate; U.K. researchers to use DNA technology in drug testing, tracking marijuana; New Hampshire lawmakers say no to marijuana decriminalization measure, halt further debate until 2001.)
Appeals Court OKs city's restrictions on suspects (The Oregonian says a three-judge panel from the Oregon Court of Appeals issued a ruling Wednesday allowing Portland police to resume handing out exclusion orders that prohibit people charged with drug or prostitution offenses from going into designated parts of the city. A 1997 lower court ruling said that issuing a temporary exclusion order and prosecuting someone for the same drug arrest violated the constitutional ban on double jeopardy.)
Police volunteer indicted in Portland bank robbery (According to the Oregonian, Louie Lira Jr., who was supposedly excluded from the United States altogether after drug and robbery convictions in California led him to be banished to his native Mexico, was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury in Portland. The longtime gang outreach worker and volunteer with the Portland Police Bureau faces charges of armed bank robbery and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony for monitoring a police scanner and giving suspects details that allowed them to escape.)
State group offers proposals to reduce underage drinking (According to the Oregonian, yet another closed committee of self-designated experts appointed by Oregon Gov. John "Prisons" Kitzhaber, this one charged with examining the problem of alcohol use by minors, issued vague recommendations Wednesday that appear to be destined to lead to yet another hugely expensive and useless lawmaking bureaucracy. Underage alcohol use has dropped in recent years.)
State says free beer at strip club a violation (According to the Oregonian, Dylan Salts, the manager of Scores cabaret in Salem, said he's ready to resume a recent tavern promotion offering two free beers for customers age 21 and over, even though Scores has no license to serve alcohol from the Oregon Liquor Control Commission. Scores argues that the club doesn't need a license if it gives away the booze instead of selling it.)
Pot, Police, And Prostitutes (Seattle Weekly sex columnist Cherry Wong compares and contrasts pot and prostitution policies in America and the Netherlands. People make up their own minds about certain vices with or without the law on their side. By keeping prostitution illegal in most of this country, it's giving the message that Americans don't have the individual common sense to choose what's right or wrong for them. Ditto for the pot.)
Ex-Candidate Faces Trial in Medical Marijuana Case (The Los Angeles Times examines the prosecution of medical marijuana patient/activist Steve Kubby in the context of Proposition 215's history and prospects. Prosecutors aren't even debating Kubby's tale of herbal success. Instead, they contend the number of plants cultivated by Kubby and his 33-year-old wife, Michele, were too many for personal medical use. "If the jury feels 265 plants is sufficient for medical use, then justice is done," said Christopher Cattran, a Placer County deputy district attorney. "If they decide 265 plants is too much, then justice is done, too." The case is set for trial May 18 in Auburn. Charles Lepp, a 46-year-old Vietnam War veteran who uses pot for a variety of ailments, including chronic back pain, post-traumatic stress disorder and manic depression, was acquitted in December in Lake County of charges that he grew 131 marijuana plants for sale.)
Obituary - 'Brownie Mary' (The San Francisco Examiner says a candlelight vigil in memory of Mary Jane "Brownie Mary" Rathbun will be held in the Castro District Saturday night. A second memorial is being planned for May 1 at Laguna Honda Hospital.)
Council Moves to Repeal Drug Tests for Members (The Los Angeles Times says the city council in South El Monte, California, voted 4-1 Tuesday to take the first step toward repealing "voluntary" random drug tests for its members.)
Teacher Held on Charges of Shipping Drugs (The Los Angeles Times says William D. Hubbell, a junior high school teacher in Burbank and the son of a local school board member, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of trafficking in cocaine after prohibition agents observed him shipping a box with $80,000 worth of cocaine to Hawaii.)
Marijuana Lesser Of Two Evils? (The Summit Daily News, in Colorado, can't believe that a U.S. Department of Transportation study conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration concluded drunk drivers pose a far greater threat than drivers who had smoked marijuana. The study shows marijuana's adverse effect on drivers is "relatively small" compared to alcohol and even some medicinal drugs. "Marijuana impairment represents a real, but secondary, safety risk. THC is not a profoundly impairing drug. Of the many psychotropic drugs, licit and illicit, that are available and used by people who subsequently drive, marijuana may well be among the least harmful.")
Hemp Help - Two Area Republicans Are Among The Backers (The Capital Times, in Madison, Wisconsin, says two local Republicans, state representative Eugene Hahn, of Cambria, and state senator Dale Schultz, of Richland Center, are among the backers of a resolution calling on Congress to legalize the commercial production of industrial hemp.)
2 Correction Officers To Serve Time (UPI says Rafael Lopez and Victor Cabrera, two former New York City jail guards, were sentenced to 2 to 6 years for attempting to smuggle drugs into the Rikers Island jail. Both men were trapped in sting operations.)
Quality of Life Policing: Giuliani Cop System Doesn't Work (An op-ed in Newsday, in New York, by Joseph D. McNamara, a former New York police officer, says that when Amadou Diallo, an innocent man, died in a hail of 41 bullets, so did quality-of-life policing, an errant style of law enforcement promulgated by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and the two police commissioners he appointed, William Bratton and Howard Safir, who have been exporting it to other cities.)
Fatal Error Shouldn't Undo The Good Done In New York (Columnist Mona Charen writes in the Daily Herald, in Arlington Heights, Illinois, that most New Yorkers are delighted with the change Mayor Giuliani has wrought.)
Strawberry Arrested For Drugs, Solicitation (UPI says Darryl Strawberry, the baseball player for the New York Yankees, was busted Wednesday in Tampa, Florida, with three-tenths of a gram of cocaine after offering an undercover policewoman $50 for sex.)
Study Slams Corruption On Border (According to the Houston Chronicle, a yearlong study by the General Accounting Office found that drug interdiction efforts in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California are compromised by federal agents and other field staff on the payrolls of Mexican drug cartels.)
Fairfax Teacher Suspended After Arrest On Drug Charge In D.C. (The Washington Post says Fred Benevento, a math teacher at Fairfax High School in Virginia and former head football coach at Langley High School, has been suspended without pay due to his arrest March 19 for possessing cocaine with intent to distribute. District of Columbia police conducting a stakeout said they found 13 bags of crack in his car. Benevento told police that the bags of cocaine "came flying through his open window" and that he "was just looking at them when the police officers arrived." Police found $136 on the man who allegedly sold Benevento the 13 bags.)
Students Face Drug Charges (UPI says an unspecified number of Lake Brantley High School kids were among 32 people busted yesterday in Longwood, Florida, for selling marijuana and cocaine.)
City Settles Firefighter's Suit In Controversial Drug Case (The Charlotte Observer says lawyers for Karen Goff, a former firefighter, and the city of Gastonia, North Carolina, agreed to a $30,000 settlement Tuesday arising from a search of Goff's locker that supposedly yielded cocaine. Prosecutors dropped charges after tests by the State Bureau of Investigation showed the substance to be inositol, an over-the-counter nutritional supplement. Then Goff filed suit, so the city did more tests and found traces of cocaine in the nutritional supplement. A laboratory worker for the city also said inositol is commonly used to dilute cocaine. Still more tests by a laboratory chosen by Goff's lawyers found no cocaine at all.)
Firefighter's Back After Fine For Pot (The Edmonton Sun, in Alberta, says Dean Troyer, an Edmonton firefighter who was fined $2,500 after being convicted of growing medical marijuana, is back on the job. "The department is satisfied that the courts have dealt with this matter and it doesn't affect his job performance," said Jean Kirkman, a fire department spokesman.)
US Company To Build 2 Plants For Hemp Processing In Canada (According to the Journal of Commerce, in the United States, Douglas Campbell, the president of the Canadian division of Consolidated Growers and Processors, says CGP plans to build two hemp-processing plants by 2001 in Manitoba.)
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Wednesday, April 14, 1999:
Fundamentally Flawed (A letter to the editor of Willamette Week, in Portland, criticizes the task force created by Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers that has proposed legislation to coerce patients with severe mental illnesses to take psychiatric drugs. The only way the mental-health system knows how to "treat" people is with powerful drugs. Many mental-health clients reject these drugs not because of "side effects" but because of real effects that can be painful, permanently disfiguring or even result in death.)
Laws separate euthanasia and assisted suicide (The Oregonian vies with the Catholic Sentinel for right-to-life subscribers.)
Brownie Mary's Legacy (A staff editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle eulogizes "Brownie Mary" Rathbun, the grandmotherly volunteer at San Francisco General Hospital whose marijuana-laced brownies helped launch the medical-marijuana movement. It isn't always the job of society's critics to find the exact solutions to painful problems. Raising the issue and marching forward can be enough. It would be a fitting legacy if a workable solution could be found to passing out Brownie Mary's goods to those who need it.)
Driving While White (Alexander Cockburn's column in the Anderson Valley Advertiser, in California, summarizes an article in this month's Esquire magazine about "Operation Pipeline," by Gary Webb. According to Webb, Operation Pipeline takes us beyond the basic "driving while black" scenarios that presume that cops pull over people merely because they are black or brown and show that millions and millions of federal DEA dollars and training sessions by the thousand have sent cops out on the roads to look for the trace signs that spell "drug carrier." Police commands in 48 states now participate in Pipeline in some fashion.)
State Spending Big Bucks To Tell Us What To Do (The San Francisco Examiner says more than ever before, the government wants to change the way you think. Public officials are spending billions on new campaigns, even buying expensive ads on prime-time television. It's called social marketing - part behavioral science, part propaganda, part Madison Avenue - and it has become the most popular political antidote to society's many shortfalls. California alone has spent $220 million on such propaganda since 1997. Federal anti-drug and anti-tobacco campaigns have $2.45 billion budgeted for advertising over the next five years. "The bottom line is it's all about politics," said Bob Belinoff, a sort of social marketing guru from New Mexico who has a Web site on the subject, www.mkt4change.com. "The people who are putting this stuff on the air are all politicians elected because of television.")
Reefer Madness in Illinois (The online version of Wired magazine notes legislation drafted by Bill Mitchell, a Republican state representative, would make it a Class A misdemeanor to "transmit information by the Internet about a controlled substance knowing that the information will be used in furtherance of illegal activity." The bill passed the state house of representatives last week and was presented to a state senate committee on Wednesday.)
Marijuana Legislation Raises Free-speech Concerns (The Associated Press version)
Lawmakers: Marijuana Is A Dangerous And Addictive Drug (UPI says the New Hampshire House of Representatives voted "overwhelmingly" today to reject a bill sponsored by Tim Robertson of Keene that would have decriminalized possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.)
U-Conn Star El-Amin Faces A Drug Charge (The Philadelphia Inquirer says Khalid El-Amin, who last month helped the University of Connecticut win its first national basketball championship, was arrested in Hartford yesterday and charged with possession of less than four ounces of marijuana. Star junior Richard Hamilton was with El-Amin, but was not charged. Members of the Statewide Narcotics Task Force also impounded the late-model red Cadillac the players were in.)
Ann Landers: U.S. Approach To Drug Use Inhumane (A letter to the syndicated advice columnist, in the Washington Post, applauds her proposal last January to reduce the harm caused by marijuana laws.)
Ancient Treatment Helps Fight Addictions (The Washington Post examines the increasing use of acupuncture as a treatment for people dependent on alcohol, nicotine, opiates and cocaine. The only place in Prince George's County that offers it, the Underground Railroad, is a private "community center for wellness and recovery" that opened two months ago in Suitland. Alaine Duncan of Hyattsville, a licensed acupuncturist, hopes to expand the center into a state-supported operation, similar to acupuncture detox programs in Baltimore and Portland, Oregon. The 1997 National Institutes of Health Consensus Conference on Acupuncture approved it for the treatment of various pains and ailments, including such things as tennis elbow, vomiting and dental pain.)
Petition: Raise Your Voice to Congress Today for HEA Reform (A bulletin from the Drug Reform Coordination Network asks you to take two short minutes to raise your voice to Congress asking for a repeal of the provision in the Higher Education Act of 1998 that delays or denies all federal financial aid for any drug conviction, no matter how minor - including marijuana possession.)
Canadian House of Commons debates medical marijuana (The Media Awareness Project provides a URL to a lengthy transcript of today's debate.)
Green Light For USA To Operate From Curacao And Aruba (Jane's Defence Weekly says that last week, Dutch and U.S. government officials reached an agreement to station U.S. counter-drug forces in the Caribbean at Hato Airfield on the Dutch Antilles island of Curacao and Reina Beatrix on Aruba following the closure of U.S. bases in Panama.)
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Tuesday, April 13, 1999:
Drug death rate doubles in Oregon (The Oregonian notes yesterday's news about the 80 drug-related deaths recorded in the state during the first three months of the year, compared with 39 during the same period in 1998. Seventy deaths involved heroin, up from 27 a year ago. The newspaper continues to perpetuate the heroin "overdose" myth exposed more than two decades ago by the Consumers Union, blaming the deaths on increasing purity rather than toxic contaminants, or concurrent use of alcohol.)
Bill wouldn't let local governments prohibit smoking in bars (The Associated Press says the Oregon House of Representatives' Commerce Committee heard testimony Monday on HB 2806, which would allow Corvallis to continue to be the only city in the state with its own drug policy.)
Marijuana club challenges closure, wants jury trials (The Associated Press says lawyers for the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative on Tuesday presented oral arguments for the club's appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The cooperative said its forced closure last October by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer violated the rights of its 2,000 patient-members, who should have been allowed to argue their medical necessity. The club also said the closure failed to recognize the legal effect of the city of Oakland's involvement in the club's operations. AP doesn't say when a ruling is due.)
Mary Jane Rathbun, 77 (The Associated Press obituary for "Brownie Mary," the San Francisco activist, says her arrests for distributing marijuana brownies to AIDS patients built momentum for the medical marijuana movement.)
'Brownie Mary' Gave Pot To Dying AIDS Patients (The Reuters version in the Toronto Star quotes Dennis Peron saying, "Before it was a cliche, Brownie Mary was compassionate. She was willing to go to jail for her kids.")
Activist Whose Pot Brownies Fueled Medicinal-Marijuana Push (The Chicago Tribune obituary)
Brownie Mary in the San Francisco Chronicle (A list subscriber forwards relevant excerpts from Scott Ostler's column.)
Existing Law Goes Bit Too Far (A staff editorial in the San Luis Obispo County Telegram-Tribune endorses California state senator Tom Hayden's bill to reform the state's "three strikes" law. In one case, a young man was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for serving as a lookout for a drug deal. The law would work better if it were tempered - in certain situations - not with mercy, but with fairness.)
'Black Tar' Grimly Covers S.F. Streets (The San Francisco Chronicle previews Steven Okazaki's "Black Tar Heroin: The Dark End of the Street," a documentary premiering tomorrow on cable television as part of HBO's "America Undercover" series. The documentary follows the lives of five bruised and ailing San Francisco junkies as they alternately try to support their habits and kick them. The film director says he's frustrated by the city's lack of counseling and rehab programs. "The addict population has gotten much younger: The average age 10 years ago was 27; now it's 19 to 20," he says. "The mayor and the city government people should be ashamed. They're part of the problem.")
Voices Of Our Time: Joseph D. McNamara (The San Jose Mercury News features the former cop and veteran drug-war critic saying, "I think that improved Internet communication in the long run is more likely to spread human freedom and prosperity, provided governments don't suppress it.")
Feds To Join Local War On Drugs (The Standard-Times, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, says the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, has agreed to send a team of federal drug experts to New Bedford to help assess needs and to develop a drug-fighting strategy. Gen. McCaffrey's three paragraph letter to Mayor Frederick M. Kalisz Jr. does not specify when the team will arrive, nor what exactly it will do.)
Probation Officer Sentenced To Prison (The Tampa Tribune says Debra D. Leeks, a 13-year veteran Polk County probation officer, was sentenced to 30 months in prison Monday for her role in shaking down a cocaine dealer under her supervision. Leeks pleaded guilty in December to conspiring to commit extortion, conspiring to obstruct justice, lying to federal agents and tampering with a witness. But Monday, appearing before U.S. District Judge Henry Lee Adams Jr., the resident of Lake Wales, Florida, declared her innocence.)
Jury Clears Lawyers In Federal Case (The Tampa Tribune says the federal jury in Tampa, Florida, acquitted Paul D. Lazarus of Miami and Howard Freidin of Fort Myers, who were charged with conspiring to get an illegal sentence reduction for Daniel Hostetter, a cocaine dealer.)
Strike A Balance In The Marijuana Debate (An op-ed in the Standard-Times, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, by John A. Benson Jr. and Stanley J. Watson Jr., the co-principal investigators of the Institute of Medicine's March 17 report on medical marijuana, reiterates the study's conclusions without clarifying its contradictions, or its failure to realistically "weigh the reality of this crude drug-delivery system against the benefits it might bestow." Nor do they acknowledge that the purported "risks" of smoking marijuana are theoretical rather than epidemiological. Instead, Benson and Watson say "Our review of the science behind marijuana and cannabinoids convinces us that the debate so far has been miscast. Rather than focusing on drug control policy, the medical marijuana debate should really be about the promise of future drug development." Like countless patients suffering right now give a hoot about helping pharmaceutical companies' bottom line.)
Media Alert: "Sex, Drugs and Consenting Adults" Rebroadcast this Thursday, 4/15 (A bulletin from the Drug Policy Foundation, in Washington, D.C., says ABC is rebroadcasting last May's report by John Stossel on consensual crime in America. Check local listings for the time.)
Another '60 Minutes' Apology on a Drug Smuggling Story (The Washington Post follows up on CBS' retraction of a story implying corruption on the part of Rudy Camacho, the San Diego district director of the U.S. Customs Service.)
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Monday, April 12, 1999:
Oregon Drug Deaths More Than Double In First Quarter Of 1999 (According to the Associated Press, the state Medical Examiner's office said Monday that 80 people died of "drug"-related causes, compared to 39 during the same period last year. However, as usual, the office didn't mention that nobody died from marijuana. And, as usual, the Medical Examiner didn't count the deaths from legal drugs such as tobacco, alcohol and pharmaceutical medicines - more than 100 times the deaths from illegal substances. Heroin again was the leading killer, playing a role in 70 deaths. Cocaine figured in 20 deaths. Last year, there were 235 drug-related deaths, 179 of them involving heroin.)
House considers bill to bar communities from banning smoking in bars (The Associated Press says the Oregon House of Representatives' Commerce Committee held a hearing Monday on a bill to strip local governments' authority to prohibit smokers from lighting up in bars and taverns. HB 2806 is a response to a successful campaign by prohibitionists in Corvallis, the first Oregon city to ban smoking in all enclosed public places. Twice in the past two years, Corvallis city councilors and voters have upheld the decision. Under HB 2806, Corvallis could keep its ban, but other cities would be prevented from instituting their own drug policies.)
Wheeler County officers seize mobile methamphetamine lab (The Oregonian notes the suspicions of a police officer in the rural north-central Oregon county - where approximately 1,600 residents are spread thinly over 1,713 square miles - were first raised because "strangers tend to be noticed.")
Sacramento County Dismisses Cultivation Charges! (A forwarded e-mail message says charges were dropped against medical marijuana patient Robert DeArkland regarding 13 plants. The dismissal is thought to be the first such act of compliance by the county with the California Compassionate Use Act of 1996.)
Cannabis Conundrum (The San Diego Union Tribune recaps the prosecution of medical-marijuana patient/activist Steve Kubby and his wife, Michele, to illustrate the failure to implement Proposition 215 in California. In the vacuum created by the failure of two successive attorneys general to defend the law, local district attorneys' varying interpretations mean some prosecutors file charges against people with just a few plants while others, such as the Kubbys, claim they need hundreds of plants for their own use.)
AIDS Activist Rathbun Dies (The Associated Press says "Brownie Mary" Rathbun, the grandmotherly activist whose arrests for distributing pot brownies to AIDS patients built momentum for the medicinal marijuana movement, has died at 77 in San Francisco.)
Cops Allege Drive-Through Drug Sales (A Reuters article in the San Jose Mercury News says Sadik Sufi, 26, the night manager of a Burger King in Novato, California, was arrested early Friday for allegedly using the drive-through window to sell cocaine.)
Study Finds Link Between Incarceration, Prior Abuse (According to the Washington Post, a report made public yesterday by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics said that almost half the women and a tenth of the men in state and federal prisons and local jails reported prior physical or sexual abuse. Among those in state prison systems, 16 percent of male inmates and 57 percent of female inmates reported prior abuse. A third of the female inmates in state prisons said they had been raped before their incarceration. Much of the abuse occurred when the future prison inmates were children.)
Former Cop In Court (The North Shore News, in British Columbia, says Scott Randall Simpson, a 12-year veteran of the North Vancouver RCMP, appeared in court on Wednesday to face six marijuana trafficking charges. Simpson, 38, is also charged with possessing marijuana, psilocybin, hashish and stealing a "cobra fashioned smoking pipe.")
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Sunday, April 11, 1999:
Case should give Ninth Amendment new life (An op-ed in the Oregonian by Randy E. Barnett, a former prosecutor and Boston University law professor, says the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative deserves to win its appeal Tuesday to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Oakland's brief argues that the people have reserved the power to enact popular initiatives. When the people pass an initiative protecting a particular liberty, judges should respect this unenumerated liberty as they would an enumerated right. In other words, the initiative process enables the voters of each state to decide themselves if a liberty is fundamental, rather than leave that decision solely to judges. While popular initiatives that restrict personal or economic liberties should be given the same constitutional scrutiny as any other state law, the people who approved medical marijuana ballot measures in California, Alaska, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Washington decided to protect a liberty.)
Harsh sentences chop crime (A letter to the editor of the Oregonian reveals the ignorance of a man who is unfamiliar with the arrest rates for marijuana offenses and other basic aspects of the history of drug prohibition in America.)
Cigarette-maker knew of danger (Another letter to the editor of the Oregonian defends the recent decision of a Portland jury to award a record $80.3 million to the family of a dead former smoker. Despite tort law, which clearly holds smokers personally responsible for the risks they take, the author contends Philip Morris also breached its responsibilities, negating Jesse Williams' responsibility and making the company - in reality, current tobacco consumers - liable for damages. The author claims "cigarettes are the only consumer product that, when used exactly as intended by the manufacturer, addicts, sickens and kills," which would seem to ignore substances such as alcohol and a number of FDA-approved and doctor-prescribed medicines.)
Movement On 215 - In the Courts and the Capitals, the Case is Made for Medical Marijuana (Orange County Register columnist Alan W. Bock examines the federal and state developments that are converging in ways that could lead to dramatic break-throughs in the medical marijuana movement. On the federal front, the Institute of Medicine Report released March 17 shows that marijuana shouldn't remain a Schedule 1 controlled substance. On the state front, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer was elected to enforce California law. Barry McCaffrey and Janet Reno are appointed federal officials attempting to nullify a law put into place by the people of California. Lockyer's loyalty should be to the people who elected him and voted for Prop. 215. The federal government had every opportunity to challenge Prop. 215 in court. It chose not to do so. To try to nullify it by administrative fiat is despicable. Bock also reviews several pending court cases that could lead to reform, including Jon Gettman's rescheduling petition.)
The Politics of Punishment (Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters writes in the Oakland Tribune that the California Senate Public Safety Committee on Tuesday approved state Senator Tom Hayden's bill to reform California's "three strikes" mandatory-minimum sentencing law by requiring the third offense to be a violent or serious one. The committee also approved another bill to study the "three strikes" law. But the Assembly Public Safety Committee cleared a $4.1 billion bond issue to build six more state prisons. The debate continues.)
Principal Charged In Cocaine Sales (The Chicago Tribune says Delores Hill, 53, a principal known for tough words about drug abuse, has been charged with running a cocaine ring at the Tabernacle Church of God Elementary School in Brooklyn, New York. Authorities shut down the private, 160-student school when Hill was arrested along with the school nurse, a janitor and another worker after she allegedly sold cocaine to an undercover policewoman on school grounds.)
Losing Battle To Revise Drug Law (Newsday, in New York, says reformers' campaign to soften the state's 1973 Rockefeller mandatory-minimum drug laws is stymied by several political factors. According to state lawmakers, those include the continuing opposition of Senate Republicans intent on building prisons; a change in Governor Pataki's position that some believe is linked to his national ambitions; and the reluctance of top Democrats to tackle an issue they say was used as recently as last year to label them as soft on crime. It doesn't matter that a statewide poll released last month showed that 69 percent of New Yorkers favored giving judges sentencing discretion.)
Earth to Supreme Court: Woman's Purse More Than a Container (Marianne Means, a columnist for Hearst Newspapers, writes in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer about the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision giving police even greater latitude in searching motorists. Men carry billfolds to hold money and credit cards, usually in those pockets the court is protecting. But women carry purses in order to keep with them at all times their most intimate possessions. The "Supremes" do not realize the mischief they are creating here. No self-respecting woman is likely to hand over the secrets of her purse to police snoops without a fight. We have not heard the last of this issue.)
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Saturday, April 10, 1999:
After 11 years, man has "LSD" tattoo removed from forehead - free (The Associated Press says that thanks to a White Bird counselor, a dermatologist and a PeaceHealth hospital policy of community service, Curtis Surpless of Eugene is getting rid of the tattoo he received at the age of 16. Surpless started using hallucinogenic mushrooms when he was 9 and is currently in rehab, but the tattoo drew tons of unwanted attention and derision. Cops searched him. Workers at McDonald's and Greyhound refused to serve him. Even a Eugene Mission employee checked with a superior before helping him when he arrived in March.)
San Mateo County Wants Pot Study (The San Francisco Examiner recounts the recent news about San Mateo County, just south of San Francisco, seeking permission from the federal government to carry out its own research to document the efficacy of medical marijuana.)
Federalizing Crime (A staff editorial in the Houston Chronicle praises the American Bar Association's recent report on the trend in Washington, D.C., to federalize local crime problems. While 95 percent of all crime is prosecuted by the states and only 5 percent or less by the federal government, federalization has led to an unhealthy concentration of policing power at the federal level, clogged the dockets of federal courts and created disparate sentences for similarly accused defendants. Congress and President Clinton should stop the inappropriate federalization of criminal activities and let states combat local crime.)
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Friday, April 9, 1999:
Portland-area police chiefs denounce racist auto stops (The Oregonian says Oregon State Police, 23 Portland-area police departments and police unions plan to send a unified message today that they will not tolerate police actions based on a person's race. The cops plan to sign a resolution that takes a strong stand against "race-based profiling." Spencer "Mike" Neal, a Portland attorney who specializes in police misconduct cases, dismissed the resolution as politics. "Talk is cheap," said Neal, who as a Filipino American has experienced racially motivated police stops, he said. "When I start seeing people being disciplined for those things, then I'll believe it.")
Medical Marijuana Users Licensed (An Associated Press article in the Las Vegas Sun examines the policies being implemented by Mel Brown, the police chief in Arcata, California, with the help of a community task force. Brown personally issues photo identification cards bearing his signature to medical marijuana patients after confirming their doctor's recommendation. So far, he has issued about 100 "stay out of jail" cards. Arcata is in Mendocino County, where District Attorney Norman Vroman plans to announce a similar ID card system next month.)
Hemp-Ventura (An Associated Press article excerpted from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune says that despite the support of Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, who was recently featured on the cover of Hemp Times, an industrial hemp bill that had been approved by the state Senate died in committee after it was sent to the House.)
Reno calls on police to deal with 'profiling' incidents (An LA Times-Washington Post news service article in the Oregonian says U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno made an impassioned plea at her weekly news briefing Thursday, asking local police and other law enforcement officials to deal with citizen complaints about searches based on "racial profiles." A proposal to require a national study of why police stop and search drivers died in Congress last year but will be taken up again.)
Marijuana smell insufficient reason for arrest: Court (The Toronto Star says Ontario's highest court ruled yesterday in the case of Peter Polashek that police do not have an automatic right to arrest someone for suspected drug possession based on the smell of marijuana coming from a vehicle. In Polashek's case, the officer couldn't say whether the smell of burned or unburned marijuana was coming from the car. Polashek's lawyer, Alan Young, said such incidents give rise to questions about whether police ever fabricate claims of smelling drugs as an excuse for a fishing expedition. Mr. Justice Marc Rosenberg, writing for a unanimous three-judge court, said "The sense of smell is highly subjective and to authorize an arrest solely on that basis puts an unreviewable discretion in the hands of the officer.")
Bid For Zero Tolerance In Schools Doomed (The Age, in Melbourne, says most state and territory leaders at today's Premiers' Conference are expected to oppose Australian Prime Minister John Howard's push for a policy of zero tolerance towards drug users in schools.)
ME Sufferer Grew 'Pot' To Ease Pain (The Daily Telegraph, in Britain, says Candace Kelly, a 51-year-old woman in Halwell, Devon, had her sentence for growing marijuana suspended because she used it medicinally to treat a form of chronic fatigue syndrome.)
The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 86 (The Drug Reform Coordination Network's original online drug policy newsmagazine includes - Driving while non-white; Search and seizure protections weakened; 53-year-old grandmother robbed, beaten while trying to buy cannabis for her arthritis; California's Y2K+1 crisis; Illinois bill criminalizes marijuana information on the internet; Report: Crises of the anti-drug effort, 1999; New Jersey Harm Reduction Coalition - action alert; Leaders of South American indigenous peoples challenge U.S. ayahuasca patent; Exhibit: "Human Rights and the Drug War" in Virginia; Gore 2000 or Gore 1984?; Lies, damn lies and statistics; Cato Forums: Jesse Ventura, prosecutorial abuse, forfeiture reform; Editorial: There oughta be a law: protecting the masses from themselves)
DrugSense Weekly, No. 93 (The original summary of drug policy news from DrugSense opens with the weekly Feature Article, a Statement to the U.N. Commission on Narcotic Drugs, in Vienna, by Andria Efthimiou-Mordaunt. The Weekly News in Review features several articles on Drug War Policy, including - U.S. targets drugs, violence in schools, crime; Federal officials forge anti-drug partnership with Maryland, Oregon; General sends anti-drug message to kids; and, Drug war without a plan. Articles about Law Enforcement & Prisons include - Drug seizure money bypassing schools; Drug dealers' property on auction block; Providence police lack records on seized cars; We're all prisoners of our incarceration policies; and an editorial, Enough prisons? Pieces about Cannabis & Hemp include - When the means clash with the ends; The smoke clears: marijuana can be medicinal, but the smoke is not; and, Farmers lobby to legalize the growing of hemp. International News includes - Peruvian police seize two tons of cocaine; Thai villagers killed in apparent drugs dispute; Tories demand life sentences to combat drugs menace; 'Too pure' heroin claims 14 lives; Australia: More teenage girls using illicit drugs; and an Australian editorial: The PM must listen on drugs. Two items in the weekly Hot Off The 'Net note DrugSense is now providing web services for MarijuanaNews.com; and how Peter McWilliams' "Online Mall" helps support his case. The Tip of the Week provides a URL for the War on Drugs Clock, a good way to make a quick point. The Fact of the Week documents that the IOM Report is not new information with an excerpt from the 1972 Shafer Commission report. The Quote of the Week cites Albert Einstein.)
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Thursday, April 8, 1999:
NORML Weekly Press Release (Marijuana like chemical could hold key to treating movement disorders; Illinois bill criminalizes marijuana information on the Internet; California county submits medical marijuana research proposal to federal government; Nearly eight out of 10 Canadians favor medical marijuana)
Tobacco fast cash gets cool reception (According to the Oregonian, the Oregon House of Representatives' majority whip, Mark Simmons, R-Elgin, and other lawmakers said Wednesday that a plan to convert part of Oregon's annual tobacco settlement payments into $400 million in immediate cash could be a wise move, but not as a solution to the state's budget impasse. State Treasurer Jim Hill has proposed selling $400 million in bonds, which would be repaid with $900 million in tobacco revenues during the next 20 years. Oddly, the newspaper doesn't ask why politicians are worrying about the "risk of future settlement payments drying up.")
Meth labs potential chemical nightmares (The Oregonian continues to present just one side of a recent story about a house that was allowed to burn down in Portland after a methamphetamine lab was supposedly found in the basement. An otherwise quotidian bit of fear-mongering about the toxic chemicals and risks posed by such labs typically fails to note they are the inevitable result of the law of supply and demand. The newspaper also typically fails to explain such labs within the context of the history of amphetamine prohibition.)
Lawmakers Asked To Soften Nevada's Marijuana Possession Law (The Sacramento Bee says Assemblywoman Chris Guinchigliani urged Nevada lawmakers Wednesday to vote for her bill, AB 577, which would reduce the penalty for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana from a felony to a misdemeanor. First-time offenders could be fined $500 but would face no jail time. Currently the offense is punishable by up to four years in prison and a $5,000 fine.)
The Fourth Amendment Suffers At Court's Hands (A staff editorial in the Greensboro News and Record, in North Carolina, says bit by bit, the U.S. Supreme Court has been dismantling the constitutional protection against unreasonable searches. The justices' ruling this week that a police officer who stops a car may rummage through a passenger's personal belongings without a search warrant is nonsense. The Supreme Court has been all too willing to put the convenience of law enforcement ahead of the rights of citizens. Where will it end? Random pat-downs on street corners?)
High court hears man's case to grow marijuana for medicine (According to an Associated Press article in the Naples Daily News, the attorney for 61-year-old George Sowell, who says smoking marijuana is the only way to ease his glaucoma and nausea, asked the Florida Supreme Court Wednesday to let his client grow the illegal herb in his yard. Sowell received a kidney transplant 17 years ago after glaucoma drugs caused his to fail. Sowell's trial judge refused to allow a "medical necessity" defense, but the 1st District Court of Appeal overturned Sowell's conviction and probation sentence on the grounds that the argument should have been allowed. The state attorney general's office appealed to the state Supreme Court, which likely won't make a final ruling for several months.)
State Justices Hear Debate On Use Of Pot For Illnesses (The Miami Herald version)
Zoned Out (The Daily Planet, in Tampa, Florida, says Hillsborough County law enforcement agencies have delineated 47 areas of the county off limits to the 2,200 county residents on probation for drug offenses, mostly possession.)
Drug Survey of Children Finds Middle School a Pivotal Time (The New York Times notes a new nationwide survey by PRIDE, the Parents' Resource Institute for Drug Education, based in Atlanta, is the first to include elementary-school children among the respondents. The survey found, not surprisingly, that more youngsters use "drugs" in middle school than primary school, but both PRIDE, the New York Times and General Barry McCaffrey frame the survey results to benefit their pro-drug-war, anti-marijuana agenda.)
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Wednesday, April 7, 1999:
Taking Civil Liberties (A letter to the editor of Willamette Week, in Portland, says Multnomah County Sheriff Dan Noelle is overstepping the boundaries of his position by using his official title and resources to amend Oregon's medical-marijuana law.)
A Modest Proposal (A like-minded letter to the editor of Willamette Week proposes an addendum to the legislation that would largely nullify the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act. Rep. Mannix and Sheriff Noelle would be the people who make the random searches of ill citizens who are certified to grow and smoke marijuana for medicinal purposes. If they propose such invasive and offensive laws, they should carry them out themselves - if the Oregon Legislature proves to have the same kind of forward thinking as the good sheriff and his political pal.)
Need For Addiction Services Exceeds County Aid (The Oregonian says Jim Peterson, Multnomah County's addictions services manager, told the county Board of Commissioners in Portland Tuesday that the $10.8 million budgeted for about 8,200 drug treatment slots in this fiscal year was inadequate by about 25 percent. Sometimes, he said, the treatment programs end up competing with the county's Corrections Department for money.)
Plan seeks tobacco money in lump sum (The Oregonian says state Treasurer Jim Hill plans to propose today that Oregon swap its rights to part of $2.4 billion in tobacco settlement payments over 25 years for a lump sum that could be used right now to solve the Legislature's school finance stalemate.)
The Smoking Gun (Willamette Week, in Portland, says last week's record $80.3 million judgment against Philip Morris is mostly attributable to the jury being exposed to confidential tobacco industry documents, which revealed that executives knew about the addictive and carcinogenic properties of cigarettes but engaged in a decades-long effort to suppress such information.)
Tobacco judgment a sad victory (A letter to the editor of the Oregonian from Wendy Bjornson of the Tobacco-Free Coalition of Oregon says a Portland jury's recent $80.3 million judgment against Philip Morris was sad because Jesse "Williams' death was among more than 6,000 in Oregon caused by tobacco every year." Bjornson's logic is clearly prohibitionist, suggesting all sorts of problems will magically disappear just by targeting tobacco companies.)
Freedom of Choice (A letter to the editor of Willamette Week from a 56-year-old woman with severe attention deficit hyperactivity disorder follows up on a recent article on Ritalin, noting it is a drug that can give some patients more choices by freeing them from the impulse to respond to every new stimulus.)
One Size Doesn't Fit All (Another letter to the editor of Willamette Week says its recent article about proposed legislation that would lock up some people with mental illnesses and force them to take dangerous drugs omitted the perspective of patients who have experienced civil commitment.)
Careful What You Wish For (A similar letter to the editor of Willamette Week says that making civil commitment and forced treatment easier won't affect just a tiny group of weirdos. Psychiatrists claim that most people are crazy. A 1993 study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health claims that over a lifetime, more than half the population is mentally ill, yet only 4 percent who "need" it receive treatment. Think about that before advocating that people should be forced to take psychiatric drugs, which cause serious brain damage and turn people into bloated and numbed-out near-zombies. The rights the attorney general wants to take away may be your own.)
Student Drug Use, Violence Rising, Survey Finds (The Seattle Times says the seventh annual Kids Count Data book survey of Washington students suggests the use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs that are illegal to Washington schoolchildren is on the rise, with "regular" use starting in sixth grade and escalating to more than one in four 12th-graders reporting they went to school drunk in the past year. More than one in three adolescents also showed signs of clinical depression.)
Dr. Donald Abrams to Speak on "Medical Marijuana: Tribulations and Trials" (A list subscriber says the Lindesmith Center will sponsor a talk May 25 at the San Francisco Medical Society by the UCSF professor who is carrying out the first research with marijuana allowed by the federal government in this decade.)
Judge keeps smoking verdict, cuts damages (According to the Oregonian, a judge in San Francisco refused Tuesday to grant a new trial or to overturn a local jury's verdict against Philip Morris, but lowered from $51.5 million to $26.5 million the amount the company must pay to a former three-pack-a-day smoker with inoperable lung cancer. When Patricia Henley won $51.5 million in February, it was the largest award ever in a tobacco liability lawsuit filed by an individual smoker. However, that verdict was surpassed last week by a Portland jury, which ordered Philip Morris to pay a record-setting $80.3 million in damages to the family of Jesse Williams, a school custodian and longtime Marlboro smoker. Philip Morris said it will take the case to the California Court of Appeal.)
Truth or DARE - The Dubious Drug-Education Program Takes New York (The Village Voice says over the next four years, the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program will implement its full curriculum - kindergarten through 12th grade - in all of New York City's public schools. After first gaining a foothold in the city in 1996, DARE America now donates $1.5 million worth of supplies annually for 271 New York City elementary schools, while the NYPD covers $8.5 million a year in salaries and benefits for the city's DARE officers. Since 1983, DARE has become the world's dominant drug prevention program. The $230 million operation conducts courses in all 50 states and in 44 countries, from Sweden and England to Brazil and Costa Rica. Eighty percent of U.S. school districts have DARE. More than a dozen studies have concluded that DARE has no lasting impact. And one six-year study found increased drug use among suburban kids who graduated from DARE.)
As Inmate Population Grows, So Does A Focus On Children (The New York Times examines some of the unintended consequences for families of America's booming prison-industrial complex. There are 7 million children with a parent in jail or prison or recently released on probation or parole. Experts warn that the nation's emphasis on imprisonment may be helping to create the next generation of criminals.)
Farmers Show Interest In Hemp (The Intelligencer Journal, in Pennsylvania, says Lancaster County Farm Bureau president Jane Balmer believes that falling prices for corn, soybeans and tobacco mean the time is ripe for local farmers to consider planting alternative crops, including hemp. The farm bureau board voted Tuesday night to investigate the matter, so an organizational meeting to explore the viability of forming the Pennsylvania Hemp Growers and Processors Co-op will be held April 16 in New Holland. According to Shawn Patrick House, owner of Lancaster Hemp Co., a wholesale distribution business, Lancaster County in 1850 was growing 540 tons of hemp, the same amount that was imported to the United States in 1996.)
Number Of Drug Deaths In Florida Rises (The Tampa Tribune says deaths in Florida last year attributable to illegal drugs increased dramatically. There were 206 deaths caused by contaminated street heroin and the ignorance of users, up 51 percent from 1997. More than five times as many people - 1,128 - died from cocaine-related causes, up 65 percent since 1992, including last year's 8.6 percent jump. The state's new drug czar, James McDonough, formerly of the White House drug czar's office, said many of the victims were long-term addicts in their 30s and 40s who finally succumbed to years of drug abuse.)
FBI investigating death of DEA agent (The Associated Press says George Gehring, 34, who had been assigned to the Drug Enforcement Administration office in Ceiba, Puerto Rico, was found Wednesday morning with a bullet wound to the temple. Police recovered a pistol at the scene. The wire service doesn't say whether a copy of the March 17 Institute of Medicine report on medical marijuana was also found nearby.)
Smoke eater fined $2,500 for pot (The Edmonton Sun says Dean Troyer, a city firefighter, was sentenced yesterday in an Alberta court for growing 15 cannabis plants to combat depression and physical pain.)
Canadians high on medicinal pot: poll (According to the Edmonton Sun, a recent Decima poll showed 78 percent of Canadians support the use of marijuana as medicine. Only 18 percent of respondents opposed it. The strongest support, 83 percent, came from households with at least $60,000 annual incomes and individuals with a university education. The poll shows medical marijuana "is more popular than any of the political parties. They're lucky to get 40 percent support," said Amanda Stewart, director of the Cannabis Re-legalization Society of Alberta. Stewart estimated about 10 percent of the population in Edmonton already uses the herb to ease physical pain and-or mental anguish.)
Canadians Favour The Use Of Medical Marijuana (The National Post version)
Fugitive Former Governor Of Mexican State Charged With Drug Trafficking (An Associated Press article in the Seattle Times says the indictment of Mario Villanueva yesterday, the day after the expiration of his term as governor of the state of Quintana Roo, came nine days after he dropped out of sight. Prosecutors denied they delayed the criminal case to avoid charging and impeaching a sitting governor, something that has never been done in Mexico. Villanueva said in a letter published yesterday by Mexican newspapers that the case was politically motivated.)
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Tuesday, April 6, 1999:
HB 3052 Hearing Alert (A list subscriber forwards news about a "public" hearing tomorrow in Salem on Rep. Kevin Mannix's bill that would eviscerate Measure 67, the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act. Notice of the hearing was published Monday morning and news of it did not spread even at the capitol until Monday afternoon.)
Tobacco verdict shows wisdom (A letter to the edtior of the Oregonian praises a Multnomah County jury's recent, record $80.3 million verdict against Philip Morris.)
Claim part in destructive habits (Another letter to the editor of the Oregonian suggests the recent $80.3 million verdict against Philip Morris wouldn't be duplicated if someone using the same logic sued alcohol manufacturers or the state lottery.)
Legislature 1999: House won't touch pot bill - Measure to refine voter-passed medicinal marijuana law dies in committee (The News Tribune, in Tacoma, says the Washington state House Judiciary Committee failed to vote on Senate Bill 5704 Friday, essentially killing it. Representatives were leery of changing the law this session because they didn't want to change something the voters had approved.)
Clinic and medical legal colloquium on medical cannabis (An e-mail from Jim Rosenfield, who maintains one of the drug policy reform sites making up the Drug Reform Coordination Network online library, publicizes a clinical session with a "well-known California physician" June 11 in Los Angeles for people who feel that cannabis might help with their medical problems, but who have had difficulty getting a recommendation from their frightened physicians. A separate legal colloquium will be held that evening for physicians on recommending medical marijuana under California law.)
McCaffrey Has The Gall To Meddle In State Business (A letter to the editor of the Orange County Register says the drug czar has a lot of nerve, threatening to arrest California Attorney General Bill Lockyer. Why did it take a constitutional amendment to prohibit alcohol but only an act of Congress to prohibit marijuana?)
The McWilliams Mall (Peter McWilliams, the best-selling author and AIDS/cancer patient being murdered by the federal government in the land of Proposition 215 as he awaits trial on trumped up marijuana conspiracy charges, needs money. Please check out his new online mall at http://www.mcwilliams.com/mall "where you can buy practically anything.")
Benefit for "Brownie" Mary Rathbun, San Francisco Legend (An e-mail list notice publicizes a variety show featuring the best talent from San Francisco's gay community Monday, April 19, at Theater Rhino. Along with comedians, singers and dancers, Dennis Peron is scheduled to appear. "Brownie" Mary gained fame for distributing marijuana in medicinal brownies she baked for AIDS patients at San Francisco General Hospital.)
In Search Of A Good Death (The second part of a two-part article in the San Francisco Chronicle about the problem of chronic pain focuses on issues related to chronic pain in the dying. Four out of 10 such patients are in severe pain most of the time, according to one recent survey. Experts insist that the statistics only mask the real tragedy: Most of the suffering can be avoided. But four months of interviews and bedside visits with people in terminal stages of illness revealed that adequate pain relief remains an elusive goal - the exception rather than the norm.)
Prisons Bulge With Drug Offenders (A staff editorial in the Valley Morning Star, in Texas, endorses "The Effective National Drug Control Strategy" recently proposed by a consortium of drug policy reform groups. "As politically dangerous as these proposals may be, they offer a realistic alternative to an ever-expanding and costly prison-building campaign that continues to fill the prison with drug offenders, and not just those who are menaces to society.")
Iowa Report: 1 in 25 Workers Showed Evidence of Drug Use (The Omaha World-Herald, in Nebraska, says the first in what is to be annual report by the Iowa Public Health Department required by law, private employers in 1998 conducted 31,740 drug tests on workers or job applicants, and 1,379 - or 4.3 percent - indicated traces of "drugs," mostly marijuana.)
Allentown drug dealer wins high court battle (The Morning Call, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, says the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Monday in the case of Amanda Mitchell, a relatively low-level seller of cocaine, that defendants have a right to remain silent about evidence at their sentencing hearings and, if they invoke that Fifth Amendment right, it cannot be held against them. The ruling means Mitchell, who originally received a 10-year sentence, will probably be sentenced again.)
Medical Marijuana Suit (A news release from the Cannabis Action Network says supporters of medical marijuana patient Joe Tacl and his family will demonstrate tomorrow at the courthouse in Levy County, Florida, as Gainesville attorney Gary S. Edinger files a lawsuit alleging that a sheriff's deputy vandalized and stole items in the Tacl home during a cultivation bust. Mr. Tacl, his wife and son all face felony charges for the same five plants.)
The Irrelevance of Evidence (Jim Rosenfield, who maintains a huge online library of information about the failures of DARE, the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, forwards some fascinating excerpts from a February 1998 study on "The Irrelevance of Evidence in the Development of School-Based Drug Prevention Policy, 1986-1996," by D.M. Gorman. Since the late 1960s drug prevention courses have never worked; they have always tended to correlate with increased use of illegal drugs by students. To understand why such counterproductive policies continue to be funded, it's instructive to compare Soviet agricultural policy as it developed in accordance with the theories and research of Trofim Lysenko during the Stalin era. Lysenko's "science" thrived under Stalin's regime, in the face of disastrous consequences, as it was totally in accord with the prevailing political philosophy: research data were irrelevant.)
Lobbyists Winning Marijuana Fight (A letter to the editor of the San Luis Obispo County Telegram-Tribune recalls a picture that appeared in Life magazine in the mid-1960s that showed wall-to-wall liquor lobbyists packed together in the halls of Congress with representatives. The alcohol lobbyists declared there would never be legal marijuana as long as they were around.)
High Court Expands Police Power In Traffic Searches (The Los Angeles Times recounts yesterday's news about the U.S. Supreme Court expanding the drug exception to the Constitution. The judges ruled that a police officer who stops a car and has reason to suspect that it contains illegal drugs or guns may search everything in the vehicle, including a passenger's belongings. Monday's decision concerned only purses, bags and other belongings, the court stressed. Officers cannot search the passengers themselves and check their pockets, the justices said, reaffirming a 1948 ruling.)
High Court Backs Searches Of Car Passenger Belongings (The Associated Press version in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
Court Loosens Car Search Rules (The Los Angeles Times version in the San Luis Obispo County Telegram-Tribune)
Justices Expand Car-Search Rules (The Chicago Tribune version)
Court Broadens Police Search Powers (The New York Times version in the Orange County Register)
Police Searching Car May Include Passenger's Things (The original New York Times version)
Ruling Expands Police Powers In Car Searches (The Washington Post version in the San Francisco Chronicle)
High Court Expands Car Search Authority - Passenger Property May Be Examined (The original Washington Post version)
Car Search Police Power Expanded (The Florida Times-Union version)
The PM Must Listen On Drugs (A staff editorial in the Age, in Melbourne, says Australian Prime Minister John Howard's vocal support for the decision by Pymble Ladies College in Sydney to expel nine girls for smoking marijuana exemplifies an approach that has demonstrably failed. Drugs have become more readily available and cheaper on Australian streets than ever before. The number of young people dying from heroin as a consequence has risen at an alarming rate. A prohibitive regime alone does not and cannot work. By enunciating such views yet again, Mr Howard sends all sorts of messages, particularly to the young: that he is out of touch with street realities, and that he is stubborn in his refusal to accept the advice and views of others more experienced in the drugs question.)
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Monday, April 5, 1999:
Public gathering to kick off the OCTA 2000 petition drive (A news release from the American Antiprohibition League, in Portland, publicizes the opening of the signature-gathering campaign for the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act initiative petition 2 pm Tuesday, April 20, at Mt. Tabor Park in Portland. Speakers include the three chief petitioners: Dr. Phillip Leveque, a retired professor of pharmacology and toxicology; Portland attorney Paul Loney; and D. Paul Stanford of the Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp, the organization promoting OCTA.)
Oregon Industrial Hemp Bill - HB 2933 (A list subscriber urges Oregon residents to contact their state representatives and urge them to support Rep. Floyd Prozanski's industrial hemp bill.)
Hemp Farming: Learning From The Past - Saving The Next Generation's Future (The spring issue of the Central Oregon Green Pages features a plug for the restoration of industrial hemp farming.)
Industry entwined with politics (A letter to the editor of the Oregonian says the FDA doesn't regulate the tobacco industry and Congress doesn't prohibit tobacco because the tobacco industry pays a lot of taxes and makes a lot of campaign contributions, both of which are inimical to the author's apparent objective - prohibition.)
Living in Pain - Part 1 - For chronic pain sufferers, even hope can hurt (The San Francisco Chronicle examines the problems faced by chronic pain sufferers such as Chris Ally of San Francisco, who smashed his motorcycle nearly 28 years ago. Chronic pain - the kind that lasts longer than the injury that may have caused it - afflicts nearly 100 million people in the United States, more than a third of the population, according to the Society for Neuros
