Industrial Hemp Planted On American Indian Soil

Following meetings with both the Vice President and the Director of Agriculture of the Navajo Nation, CHA spokesman Christie Bohling told NORML that support for the hemp cultivation project is "overwhelming beyond our wildest dreams." Bohling notes that adverse weather and a lack of seeds limited CHA's spring planting to a small "ceremonial celebration," but adds that a widescale planting is scheduled for the end of April.

The Navajo Hemp Project began in 1992 when activists Jim Robinson and Tom and Carolyn McCormick moved to the reservation for the purpose of introducing hemp cultivation on sovereign soil. Currently, well over 30,000 acres of Navajo nation land has been allocated for hemp cultivation. In addition, CHA states that the organization is close to securing approval for similar cultivation projects from ten other tribes located across the United States.

This will enable CHA the opportunity to grow hemp in a variety of "different [climates and] environments," Bohling explains.

"This year we had a real show of force," said activist Lennice Werth of Virginians Against Drug Violence. "[We had] lots of anti-prohibitionists showing up at the state house to voice their dissatisfaction with this kind of legislation."

Among bills defeated outright were measures to include marijuana seeds and stems as evidence to increase marijuana penalties (SB34, SB58, HB96, HB169); allow courts to continue cases that have been dismissed due to improper procedures (HB646, SB53); add a $1,000 additional fine for possession or distribution charges to go to local authorities (HB1002), and permit the drug testing of high school students (HB949, HB950, HB579).

A measure that was not killed, but amended, was legislation that would have greatly expanded the use of military for drug law enforcement, particularly for searching private property. Werth notes that the amended bill limits use of the military to aerial surveillance only and called the revision "a substantial victory" for the drug reform movement.

Some measures that passed the General Assembly despite the efforts of drug-law reformers include legislation to legalize double jeopardy (SB435, SJR73) and deny bail to drug offenders (HB504). Altogether, reformers monitored a total of 48 bills.

For more information, please contact Lennice Werth of Virginians Against Drug Violence @ (804) 645-8816.

Marlowe, who is clinically disabled and admits to using marijuana at least three times a day to obtain therapeutic relief from three orthopedic conditions she suffers, told NORML that she successfully utilized the medical necessity defense. However, she adds that her fight is still far from over.

"I [intend] to file suit against both the state and federal government for medical access to marijuana," she said. "Nobody should have to perform a criminal act to obtain a safe, natural medicine."

For more information, please contact Jean Marlowe of the Marijuana Relegalization Movement @ (704) 625-2958.

The guilty verdict was a setback for marijuana-law reform advocates who had hoped to set a legal precedent in Ohio for the medical use of marijuana.

John Hartman, President of Northcoast NORML, notes that the organization flew in NORML Board member and CUNY Medical School Professor Dr. John Morgan to testify as an expert witness on the use of marijuana and pain management.

"For whatever reason, the jury [who found Asbury innocent on charges of cultivation] didn't find Daniel's medical necessity case strong enough to nullify [the trafficking charge,]" Hartman notes.

Hartman adds that Asbury's defense was made more difficult because Ohio currently provides no medical marijuana defense in its body of established state law. Therefore, Asbury's defense was basically asking the jury to "find the compassion to rule over the law," Hartman said.

Asbury suffered a broken neck 15 years ago and began to use marijuana as a therapeutic after prescription drugs proved ineffective at controlling his pain. Marijuana made me "fe[el] like a human being again," he said.

For more information on the case of Daniel Asbury, please contact John Hartman of Northcoast NORML @ (216) 521-9333.

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Regional and other news

Body Count

PULLMAN - It may field quips about "higher" education, but Washington State University is getting $70,000 in taxpayer money to study growing marijuana for medical purposes.

The money was contained in successful legislation sponsored by Sen. Jeanne Kohl, a Seattle Democrat, and Sen. Bob McCaslin, a Spokane Valley Republican whose wife died of cancer last fall.

Marijuana and its active ingredient, THC, can help control the nausea and pain of cancer chemotherapy and radiation, AIDS or HIV-related illnesses, as well as glaucoma, multiple sclerosis and other diseases.

THC can be prescribed in pill and smokeable form, but is synthetically derived. The plant form is both cheaper and more effective, some health experts say.

"It seems to be in some cases better than anything else on the market," Bob Smith, WSU's vice provost for research, said Tuesday. WSU's College of Pharmacy will use the money to study the feasibility of doctors with Food and Drug Administration approval dispensing marijuana to some patients, Smith said. Another $70,000 will go to the University of Washington for similar work.

The legislation directs the universities, the state Department of Health and the state Board of Pharmacy to determine who would grow it, the appropriate chemical content of marijuana to provide safe and effective relief, licensing procedures, the plant's potential benefits, and an estimate of the cost of growing, processing and distributing the substance.

[End of segment]

Prisons Increase Crime

From The Mouths Of Drug Warriors

DURHAM, N.C. (UPI) -- The effects of peer pressure on teenager's behavior may be severely overrated, University of North Carolina researchers said Tuesday.

"Peer influence for adolescent drug use may not be as strong as commonly believed," said Dr. Karl E. Bauman, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

This study, published in the scientific journal Addiction, adds to a growing body of research that suggests peer pressure is a weaker factor in adolescent behavior than many had believed.

"When there is so much emphasis on peer pressure - there's a tendency not to discuss or not to look hard for evidence of other factors," said co-author Dr. Susan T. Ennett, research health analyst for the Research Triangle Institute. "We went back and tried to critically examine the importance of peer pressure."

By looking at more than a hundred studies spanning two decades of research, Ennett and Bauman found that peer pressure was easily blamed for teen-age behavior but never examined. Other factors such as family life, economic background, environment, and biological tendencies all may be as important or more important than peer pressure in determining behavior.

"The influence of families may be substantially underestimated because the importance of peer influence is exaggerated," Bauman said.

This may be the reason why anti-drug programs in schools are not showing a marked effect on teen-age drug use.

[End of segment]

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