Los Angeles Cannabis Buyers' Club Busted
Third Raid Since August Sparks Outrage Among Cannabis Community

The raid was conducted behind the backs of city officials, who were reportedly outraged by the sheriffs' action. West Hollywood is one of several California communities to have adopted a resolution urging police to refrain from medical marijuana arrests.

Officers confiscated about one pound of marijuana, pills, some brownies, and liquid believed to contain THC, said L.A. County Sheriff's Sgt. Robert Stoneman. Witnesses to the raid said that items relating to Proposition 215, a ballot initiative that would allow Californians to cultivate and possess marijuana for medical purposes, were also seized.

This marks the third bust of a cannabis buyers' club since August and demonstrates a definite pattern among law enforcement to target medical marijuana organizations. "This [bust signifies] a new low in the war on pot," said California NORML coordinator Dale Gieringer. "Our marijuana laws are clearly bankrupt when they let law enforcement authorities run amok arresting people for providing medicine to the sick. The time has come to protect Californians' right to medicine."

According to an article that appeared in the August 9 edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer, the club served approximately 1,000 members and did not allow smoking to take place at the facility. Members were screened by club staffers and were only accepted if they were referred by local AIDS treatment organizations.

For more information, please contact Dale Gieringer of California NORML at (415) 563-5858 or Allen St. Pierre of NORML at (202) 483-5500.

"This was not an easy decision," said Curtis Ponzi of the Healing Alternatives Foundation (HAF), the organization responsible for the distribution. "It was very stormy, very emotional. But we're filling a void."

The foundation, founded in the early 1980s, provides a variety of herbal remedies and non-FDA approved drugs at-cost to seriously ill patients. The organization makes no therapeutic claims about its products and urges buyers to discuss therapies with a doctor.

Patients purchasing marijuana from the foundation must provide a note from their doctor stating that they have a legitimate medical need for cannabis. The foundation then double checks with the physician, a process that takes about a week. The verification process is thorough enough to discourage recreational users from attempting to purchase marijuana, stated Ponzi.

Community reaction to the program appears positive. "Both Mayor [Willie] Brown and I think this is a sound program," said Dean Goodwin, an aide to the San Francisco mayor. "They're concentrating on the people who really need [the marijuana.]"

In addition, the San Francisco Police Department seems ready to exercise a policy of benign neglect with regard to the renewed distribution. "We would only be interested in this if it became obvious that they were selling [marijuana] to people who weren't sick," said narcotics division Sgt. Kurt Bruneman.

Metropolitan Community Church pastor Jim Mitulski said is allowing his church to be used for the foundation's marijuana sales because medical cannabis is essential to the well-being of many congregation members. The current program is expected to operate on a weekly basis.

"We are not distributing it - the foundation is," Mitulski said. He notes that at least three additional churches may also participate in medical marijuana distribution in the near future.

In the meantime, state law enforcement officials claim they will watch and wait. "We're looking at it and we're aware of [marijuana being distributed by the HAF,]" said Steve Telliano, press secretary for state Attorney General Dan Lungren. "We're just keeping an eye on the situation to see what's happening."

For more information, please contact Dale Gieringer of California NORML at (415) 563-5858 or Californians for Compassionate Use at (415) 621-3986.

The commission reaffirmed its support for Proposition 215 in today's resolution, joining the California Academy of Family Physicians, San Francisco Medical Society, California Nurses Association, and AIDS Project Los Angeles among the major medical groups and patient advocacy groups that have endorsed Proposition 215.

The AIDS commission's resolution urged McCaffrey, who on September 12 held a press conference in Los Angeles attacking the initiative, to "stop marginalizing people with AIDS and other seriously ill Californians in an effort to enhance President Clinton's image."

The resolution was passed by a vote of 31-0, with four abstentions.

For more information, please contact Dave Fratello of Californians for Medical Rights at (310) 394-2952.

Michigan Attorney General spokesman Chris Dewitt said the use of inmates "certainly would be questionable under Michigan's law."

"Marijuana law isn't any more important than election law and we are appalled that [those against the initiative] had to break the law to beat us," said Bustance, who is seeking a new election. "What would have happened if they hadn't used taxpayer's dollars against the taxpayers?"

Voters narrowly rejected the proposal this past August.

For more information, please contact Bill Bustance of Traverse City NORML at (616) 264-9565.

Body Count

An excerpt:

My own experience with the program is that it tends to infantilize inmates. It gives them a safe, supportive environment in which to change their behaviors. But the manner in which it is administered seeks to shield the inmates from many of the controversial social issues that the inmate will experience when he or she is returned to the streets.

A handful of locals quietly buttonholed the parents of the worst troublemakers and advised them to leave town. As one resident put it, "They were persuaded to immigrate. You don't cure gangrene, you amputate it." In all, about 40 students left before classes started last fall, said Darce Driskel, 48, superintendent of the Pilot Rock School District. Driskel said the departing parents he spoke with did not mention threats but said they were moving for their jobs. None complained to police.

Well now, shades of Vietnam. Let's destroy the village in order to save it. This is a success story? This is "working together"? How many of those who were banished were minorities? Poor vs. rich? How would such tactics work in Portland? Shouldn't the FBI be interested when people have their civil rights violated without due process by a mob using intimidation to achieve ethnic cleansing? With The Oregonian cheering small-town nazis on, don't expect the FBI to buck "public opinion" anytime soon.

Law-enforcement officials are asking Fox Broadcasting to reconsider its cancellation of "America's Most Wanted," arguing that the prime-time show serves as an all-points-bulletin beamed into millions of households and has helped capture more than 400 fugitives from justice in the past eight years.

Distress about the show's departure - which Fox attributes to low ratings and a need for comedies in that Saturday-night time slot - even prompted the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Thomas Constantine, to write an impassioned letter to Rupert Murdoch, chairman of Fox's parent company, News Corp., urging him to keep the show on the air.

"The loss of 'America's Most Wanted' will be devastating to American law enforcement efforts and the safety of our communities," Constantine said in his June 6 letter, which had previously been undisclosed. ...

Even William Bennett, co-director of the conservative policy group Empower America and a top adviser to Jack Kemp, said he intended to write a letter to Murdoch urging him to keep the show alive. ...

Begun in February 1988, the show has had an unusually long tenure for prime-time. Reality programming, which includes this and other police re-enactment shows, has fallen out of favor as a genre.

'Review Of Human Studies On Medical Use Of Marijuana'

B.C. leads in protecting convicts against AIDS, report says:
The province wins plaudits for offering free condom supplies and methadone treatment.

By Pamela Fayerman, Sun Health Issues Reporter

B.C. prisoners are more likely than other Canadian convicts to engage in practices that put them at risk for HIV and AIDS, but a new report says the province leads the way in preventative measures.

In the report by various AIDS organizations released today in Ottawa, B.C. is exempted from the criticism of federal and other provincial corrections officials who have delayed measures to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.

The report says B.C. stands out for offering free condom supplies, bleach for needles used by injection-drug users and methadone-maintenance treatment in special circumstances.

There are about 160 prisoners with AIDS in Canada, but thousands are HIV positive and many more carry hepatitis B or C viruses, contracted through risky sexual behavior and unsterilized syringes or tattooing equipment.

Studies show the rate of HIV infection in federal prisons is 10 times higher than in the general population. As well, the prevalence of hepatitis C is 28 to 40 per cent of the prison population.

But provincial and federal authorities aren't admitting to the reality of drug use, according to Ralf Jurgens, coordinator of the report published by the Canadian AIDS Society and the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network.

"It is high time that Canada adopts a more pragmatic approach to drug use, acknowledging that the idea of a drug-free prison is no more realistic than the idea of a drug-free society," said Jurgens.

"Prisoners come from the community and return to it," said Russell Armstrong, executive director of the Canadian AIDS Society. "They are sentenced to prison, not to be infected.

"If we neglect to protect their health, this will have negative consequences for the health of all Canadians, and governments could be held morally and legally responsible. We can save lives and money by acting without further delay."

Dr. Diane Rothon, medical director of B.C. Corrections, said she is somewhat uncomfortable that B.C. is singled out in the report for its initiatives.

"I'm proud of our progress but I don't like to broadcast our major harm-reduction initiatives," she said.

Condoms, lubricants to avoid condom rips, dental dams for oral sex and 30-millilitre packets of bleach to disinfect needles have all been discreetly and freely available to about 2,500 prisoners in B.C. jails for a few years.

A survey of prisoners undertaken for the report revealed that 33 per cent of inmates in B.C. engaged in risky practices, compared to 26 per cent elsewhere.

A new policy on methadone maintenance has recently been implemented in B.C. Men and women whose lives or health may be endangered because of abrupt methadone withdrawal are considered for the treatment program while in jail.

Rothon said at any one time, there wouldn't be more than four prisoners in B.C. jails who would qualify for such a maintenance program.

To those who wonder why such initiatives are necessary when drugs aren't supposed to be in prisons to begin with, Rothon said: "People can wonder about this. But it's a fact of life.

"Security in jails ranges from maximum to open camps. It's impossible to guard every inmate every minute of the day. There are visitor searches and drug-sniffing dogs, but the public can't be naive enough to assume there are no drugs in jail," she said.

There is a pronounced cost-effectiveness argument to B.C.'s harm-reduction approach. For every case of HIV or AIDS that is averted, Rothon estimates it saves the health system $200,000 in drug and other health costs. She didn't know the cost of the prison initiatives, but said it is likely relatively small.

There are currently no plans to distribute free needles to drug users in jail, she said, but she added policies are constantly under review and they may eventually become available.

Guards have fought any such move out of fear needles could potentially be used as weapons.

Randy White, Reform MP for Fraser Valley West - where there are three federal institutions - said he resents the report's recommendations.

"If we say we have a zero tolerance on drugs, then there is a major contradiction [to supplying such things as needles] and I don't think we need to be cowering from lawyers and John Howard society prisoner advocates.

"Drugs are a major problems in prisons and the reason why there are beatings, drug lords, gangs, fights and killings. If those running our prisons can't control drugs behind the most secure walls, then why bother outside the walls?

"If we follow the reports recommendations, then it's the same old pandering to inmates. The message it sends is `we can't do anything about it, so we'll just give it to you.'"

GUATEMALA CITY, Aug 9 (Reuter) - Guatemala will look into allegations by a former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent that link Guatemalan politicians, businessmen and the military to drug trafficking and murders, officials said on Friday.

"I turned over the investigation to the drug trafficking crimes prosecutor who will decide whether there are any new complaints that have real elements for a new investigation," Amilcar Velasquez Zarate, chief metropolitan district prosecutor, told Reuters through a spokeswoman.

For two years former DEA agent Celerino Castillo of McAllen, Texas, has publicised his story, which includes DEA and CIA corruption and complicity in drug trafficking in Guatemala.

His 1994 book, Powder Burns, about working for the DEA in Guatemala from 1985-1990, made little impact here until the daily paper Siglo Veintiuno published his charges last month.

Siglo Veintinuno picked up the Castillo story after the former agent faxed to U.S. media his response to a July White House report about Central Intelligence Agency involvement with human rights abuses in Guatemala.

In his response, Castillo said the report "barely scratched the surface in revealing the depth to which the CIA has been involved in murders and other crimes."

Castillo told Reuters he knows of half a dozen cases in Guatemala in which the DEA ignored cases of government officials dealing drugs or of murders by army personnel.

Siglo Veintiuno published names of former congressmen, prominent businessmen and members of the government of ex-president Vinicio Cerezo whom Castillo said were involved in drug trafficking.

Cerezo responded with a scathing letter to the editor.

"I categorically reject as false what this guy has said about me, since I've never had the slightest contact with any so-called drug trafficking 'capos,"' Cerezo wrote.

Castillo said he is not optimistic about an investigation.

"It doesn't surprise me that they say they will look into this," Castillo said. "Like usual they're going to put on a show and either the judge is going to quit or get whacked (killed). They won't let them do a complete investigation."

Worn for up to 14 days, the device detects the use of cocaine, heroin, marijuana, PCP and other drugs through sweat.

By Greg Hernandez, Times Staff Writer

SANTA ANA--Drug offenders soon may be sweating out the results of their drug tests--literally.

A new skin patch, recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, detects the use of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana and PCP through sweat. Worn for up to 14 days, it is then sent to a lab for testing.

Orange County's Probation Department plans to begin using the "sweat patch" on a limited basis within a few weeks, said department spokesman Rod Speer. It already has been used in some pilot programs throughout the country.

"We do urine testing as a straight course of business to check on people who are using drugs," Speer said. "This would be another way to do it. It gives you the ability to check for continuous use."

The window of detection with a urine test is roughly 12 to 72 hours. But the patch retains evidence of drugs for two weeks. It also is the only drug test that specifically detects heroin.

"There have been a variety of ways people have tried to detect the use of drugs through sweat, ranging from testing someone's sweaty clothes to putting them in a bodysuit and on to a treadmill, but none of that was practical," said Ed Collom, a vice president of PharmChem Laboratories in Menlo Park, which developed the product.

Since the patch cannot be removed from the arm without detection, it all but eliminates cheating, said Dan Verweil, chief executive officer of Sentencing Concepts Inc., an Anaheim company that works with the courts and probation departments on alternative sentencing methods for low-risk offenders.

"The only way to actually beat the sweat patch is to actually have the thing removed," he said. "They have a stake in making sure the patch stays on. Once it comes off, it can't go back on. It takes on a different shade. We know if it's come off and been reapplied."

While the Probation Department has not yet begun sampling the product, Orange County Superior Court Judge David T. McEachen has used it in a few cases in the county's drug court.

"One person volunteered to use it to prove to me that he wasn't using drugs," McEachen said. "He used it to keep himself honest."

McEachen said the biggest drawback to using the patch is its cost, which is currently three times more than a $6 urine test.

"I think in the future, the cost will come down," McEachen said. "There's some advantages to it. By using sweat, it absorbs everything. If you used heroin, you used heroin. You can't talk about poppy seeds," which can have identical results in drug tests.

The 2-by-3-inch patch, invented by Sudormed Inc. in Santa Ana, resembles a bandage and can be worn on the upper outer arm or the lower midriff. It consists of an adhesive plastic film that holds an absorbent pad against the skin. It is waterproof and can be worn during most normal activities, including swimming and bathing.

Orange County officials said a potential roadblock is the fact that the product has not yet been challenged in court in a Kelly-Frye hearing, which determines the admissibility of scientific evidence. The 1923 Kelly-Frye ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court found that scientific evidence had to have "general acceptance" by scientists. Urinalysis has met that criteria.

"Urinalysis is the test of choice, and we want the same thing to happen to the patch," Verweil said.

By Tracey Tyler - Toronto Star Legal Affairs Reporter

The Ontario Human Rights Commission has dealt a blow to drug testing in workplaces, finding the program at one of the country's biggest oil companies illegal.

Drug abuse and drug addiction are ``handicaps'' within the meaning of the Ontario Human Rights Code and testing employees is discrimination on the basis of this disability, the commission said in a ruling released yesterday.

The decision affects most companies in Ontario and, though not binding on other provinces, can serve as a guide to their human rights commissions.

The case involves Imperial Oil's alcohol- and drug-testing policy, considered to be among the most comprehensive and rigorous in Canada and developed following the 1989 crash of the oil tanker Exxon Valdez, piloted by a recovered alcoholic. He was acquitted of drunkenness charges over the spill.

Imperial Oil says its testing policy was developed to minimize safety risks posed by employees who may be impaired by drugs or alcohol on the job.

But the commission says the program - which includes mandatory tests as a condition of employment, random drug tests thereafter and automatic discipline for anyone testing positive - is too broad.

Imperial has ``failed to prove'' a positive drug test is directly connected to job performance because drugs can remain in the body for several days after the impairing effects wear off, the commission says.

Marvin Huberman, counsel to the commission, said yesterday the ruling has ``enormous implications'' for other employers, ``particularly those with employees in safety-sensitive positions.''

Imperial is considering an appeal and believes its program is vital to public safety, spokesperson Barbara Hrjduk says.

While the corporation will be discussing possible amendments to its policy with the commission, it will continue to test its approximately 7,500 employees in the interim, she said.

The case stems from a human rights complaint laid by Martin Entrop, a senior operator on the control board at Imperial's Sarnia Refinery, who was reassigned from his high-risk duties after revealing in 1991 that he had overcome an alcohol addiction eight years earlier.

The ruling marks the first time a provincial human rights commission has looked at whether drug testing programs violate its laws.

The ruling does not apply to federally regulated industries such as banking and transportation, which have been pushing for the right to test employees for drugs.

But it will most certainly be read carefully by a Canadian Human Rights Commission tribunal, which will soon be asked to rule on whether drug testing will be permitted in industries under federal control.

And Huberman says the ruling may influence United States transportation authorities, who have so far refused to exempt Canadian truckers and other cross-border carriers from strict new drug and alcohol testing laws.

In considering the complaint at Imperial, commission chairperson Constance Backhouse said that both alcoholism and drug abuse generally are handicaps within the definitions of Ontario's human rights code.

That is, they are illnesses or disease ``creating physical disability or mental impairment and interfering with physical, psychological and social functioning,'' she said.

Under the Code, the company could refuse to employ people with drug or alcohol problems if it could prove that a legitimate occupational requirement was the need to be free from impairment by drugs.

An oil refinery accident could cause a ``catastrophic incident'' endangering workers, the public and the environment, she said.

However, Backhouse said, there's no direct connection between the key components of Imperial's policy and the actual prevention of on-the-job impairment so the company cannot use this defence.

The company can legally administer drug tests if it has reasonable cause - for example, if a worker appears to be impaired - or following an accident, she said.

Similarly, she said, testing can also be done in the course of certifying an employee for a safety-sensitive job and when deciding whether or not to they should be re-instated.

But Backhouse found almost every key component of the company's program unlawful, including:

A requirement that employees in safety-sensitive positions disclose any current or past substance abuse problem.

Automatic removal from safety-sensitive jobs for anyone with a substance abuse problem.

Mandatory drug testing as a condition of employment and random drug testing while employed.

The commission says the drug tests are an inadequate means of assessing a person's ability to do the job.

[End]