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Medicinal Cannabis Gardens (News Release From Ted Tuk
Says Berkeley RxCannabis Growers Collective Opening Membership
For Medical Marijuana Patients
Protected By California Compassionate Use Act - Won't Sell Anything,
Just Provide Support So Patients Can Grow Their Own - Cost To Rent
Four-Square-Foot Plot In Northern California Is $150, Or $340 Per Year
For Nine Square Feet)

Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 16:23:56 EST
Originator: medmj@drcnet.org
Sender: medmj@drcnet.org
From: "Ted Tuk, dir. B.Rx.C.G.C." (Ted@rxcannabis.org)
To: Multiple recipients of list 
Subject: Medicinal Cannabis Gardens

BERKELEY, California (February 9, 1998) The Berkeley RxCannabis Growers
Collective today announces opening of membership. The members receive
support that makes it possible to cultivate and control one's own medicinal
cannabis.

We do not sell cannabis, but instead share resources with fellow members to
make cultivation available to all patients. With the federal government's
attack on "buyers clubs," we feel that it is necessary at this time to
provide alternative access to medicine for patients of Proposition 215.
Therefore, we will do all we can in order to help facilitate patients'
personal cultivation.

Farm RxCannabis is located in Northern California at the Church of
the Living Tree. The Church's paper mill makes handmade paper from hemp
and other alternative fibers, and has applied to the DEA for a permit to
cultivate fiber hemp for their paper mill since 1993. They have all the fencing in
place, and have been in federal compliance with all regulations for over a
year.

Since the passage of Proposition 215, California patients have the right to
cultivate marijuana for their personal use, as recommended by their doctors,
making the present project in full compliance with all state as well as
federal cultivation regulations.

The plots will be made available to qualifying medicinal cannabis users.
Cost to rent plots is $150 per year for a four square foot Plot (limit
three Plots per patient), or $340 per year for a nine square foot Plot
(limit two Plots per patient).

The B.Rx.C.G.C. is leading the way for patients' independence of the "black
market," advocating the personal cultivation of medicinal cannabis as
permitted under Proposition 215.

For Further Information
Contact Ted Tuk
510 420-0215,
email BRXCGC@rxcannabis.org.
www.rxcannabis.org
P.O. Box 136
Berkeley, CA 94701

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US-BC Drug Smuggling Sparks Probe ('Vancouver Sun'
Says Politicians And Attorneys General From Saskatchewan, Manitoba,
The Yukon, Oregon, Idaho, North Dakota, Nevada And Alaska Will Meet
In Washington State To Discuss More Interdiction Efforts - Increase
In Heroin Deaths Apparently Basis For Belief 'Border Has Become
Such A Serious Problem')

Date: Mon, 09 Feb 1998 08:26:28 -0800
To: maptalk@mapinc.org
From: Pat Dolan 
Subject: U.S.-B.C. drug smuggling sparks probe
Cc: mattalk@islandnet.com
Newshawk: Pat Dolan
Source: Vancouver Sun Front Page
PubDate: Feb.09,1998
Contact: sunletters@pacpress.southam.ca
Author: Marina Jimenez (Van. Sun and Canadian Press)

U.S.-B.C. drug smuggling sparks probe

Marina Jimenez Vancouver Sun and Canadian Press

Drug smuggling across the B.C.-United States border has become such a serious
problem that politicians and police from both countries will soon meet to
discuss how to control Canada's most vulnerable section, B.C.'s attorney-general
said Sunday.

Ujjal Dosanjh and Christine Gregoire, attorney-general for Washington
state, will set up a meeting with top police officials, they announced
during a meeting of 10 attorneys-general and justice ministers from Western
Canada and western U.S. states.

"It is a very serious problem for us," Dosanjh said during a break in the
meeting. "There are over 300 overdose deaths a year in British Columbia and
I understand the problems are increasing in Washington state as well."

The meeting of high-level officials will take place sometime over the next
few weeks in Washington, where drug-related deaths are on the rise.

"The border county prosecutor told me there is a new strain of heroin and
coke of a magnitude that we've not seen before," said Gregoire.

B.C. and Washington officials hope to devise a strategy to ensure they're
not exporting their problems, allowing drugs and criminals to slip across
the border.

Gregoire believes heroin and cocaine are coming into Washington state from
Vancouver, while Dosanjh said it's his understanding the drugs are coming
the other way.

"However, as you know, the Vancouver port is now known for drug smuggling
. . . it may be that it hits here first and then goes back to the U.S.,"
he added.

Police recently reported that the Hells Angels motorcycle gang has
infiltrated Vancouver's container port and helped turn it into a major
North American entry point for illegal drugs.

The other trend officials discussed is the migration of U.S. marijuana
growers into B.C., where they're setting up hydroponic operations and then
taking their product back south.

"I have been advised by police sources that marijuana growing operations
are under the control of biker gangs and organized crime and the crop is
then shipped into the U.S.," said Dosanjh.

Dosanjh, Gregoire and other officials also discussed Internet crime --
including gambling and child pornography -- telemarketing fraud, and
lottery sales.

"Those who would commit telemarketing fraud and other types of crime don't
know the border," said Gregoire, who noted that recently B.C. and
Washington worked together to stop a major B.C. telemarketing racket
that bilked Washingtonians of several million dollars.

"I'm ashamed to say that British Columbia jurisdiction is being utilized by
perpetrators of fraud of vulnerable, elderly citizens of the United States of
America, of our neighbors," Dosanjh said.

The ministers held a closed session Sunday with no staff or outsiders
present in order to have candid talks, said Dosanjh.

Ministers from Saskatchewan, Manitoba, the Yukon, Oregon, Idaho, North
Dakota, Nevada and Alaska also attended .

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

Re - US-BC Drug Smuggling Sparks Probe (Letter To Editor
Of 'Vancouver Sun' Says Efforts To Stymie Law Of Supply And Demand Doomed
With Regard To Cannabis - Canadians Should Take Advantage Of
Spasmodic US Experiment In Social Control
Just As They Did During Alcohol Prohibition)

Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 14:02:27 EST
Originator: drctalk@drcnet.org
Sender: drctalk@drcnet.org
From: Gerald Sutliff 
To: Multiple recipients of list 
Subject: SENT LTE: Vancouver Sun

Editor
Vancouver Sun

RE: U.S.-B.C. drug smuggling sparks probe
by Marina Jimenez (2/9/98)

Dear Editor,

In the above referenced article you reported as follows:

"I have been advised by police sources that marijuana growing operations
are under the control of biker gangs and organized crime and the crop is
then shipped into the U.S.," said Dosanjh (B.C.'s attorney-general).

A worrisome thing, but readers must wonder why he didn't suggest some
reasons for this. The root cause is the U.S.'s Prohibitionist policies and
our desire for marijuana. This, coupled with Canada's (and British
Columbia's) reluctance to legalize the growing, packaging and retailing of
marijuana guarantees that "biker gangs" and other outside-the-law
organizations will take over that economic activity. They also reap the
benefits of the trade.

During the 1920s, the era of another U.S. spasmodic experiment in social
control, Canadian liquor manufacturers benefited from their legal activity
by selling their products to "rum runners" who took the risks and made
obscene profits. A solution for Mr. Dosanjh's concern about bikers suggests
itself here.

Incidentally, illegal traffic goes both ways. I have met Canadian citizens
and residents visiting in Reno, Nevada who readily admit they "defray
expenses" by buying a lot of liquor there for transport home. Must I add
that Nevada is a low liquor tax and a no sales tax state?

Mr. Dosanjh needs to wake up, smell the roses and stop being a toady to the
U.S.'s doomed Prohibition policy.

Sincerely yours
Gerald M. Sutliff
6400 Christie Ave., #1409
Emeryville, CA 94608
510-652-7929

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

Three Upcoming Colorado Events (News Release
From Colorado Hemp Initiative Project On Events February 11, 24
& March 13-15, Including Debate Wednesday Night In Boulder
Between NORML's Allen St. Pierre And Former DEA Head Peter Bensinger)

Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 20:33:12 -0700 (MST)
From: "Colo. Hemp Init. Project" (cohip@levellers.org)
To: "Colo. Hemp Init. Project" (cohip@levellers.org)
Subject: Upcoming Events

THREE UPCOMING COLORADO EVENTS

Wed. Feb. 11, 1998
7:30 pm
Marijuana Legalization Debate
Peter Bensinger, former administrator of the federal Drug Enforcement
Agency (DEA)
and
Allen St. Pierre, asst. director of the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML)

Glen Miller Ballroom
University Memorial Center (UMC)
NE corner of Broadway and Euclid
University of Colorado, Boulder
Sponsored by the CU Cultural Events Board

***

Tuesday, February 24, 1998
7:00 pm
Author Dan Baum speaks on U.S. Drug Policy and his book, "Smoke and
Mirrors"
Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center
1520 Euclid
Boulder, CO
(303) 444-6981
Sponsored by the: Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center
"Thirteen years of working for nonviolent social change"

***

Weekend, March 13-15
Policing, Detention, and Prisons Conference:
Part II of "Unfinished Liberation: Critical Perspectives on Feminism,
Coalitions, and Black Freedom"
Featuring Angela Davis, Ward Churchill, and Geronimo Platt
Friday: Film forum
Saturday and Sunday: Twelve panel discussions on topics including "Media
and Prisons", "Political Prisoners", "Death Penalty", "Policing Radicalism
in the 60s to the 90s", and the "Drug Alcohol Wars".

Panelists include:
- Paul Butler, George Washington Univ. Law School
- Jim Vander Wall, Co-editor, COINTELPRO Papers
- Gary Webb, Investigative Reporter & Author, Dark Alliance
- Dan Williams, Attorney for Mumia Abu-Jamal

Registration: A $10 donation is requested; however, no one will be turned
away due to lack of funds.
Send Registration form and check (payable to Dept. of Ethnic Studies) to:
Unfinished Liberation Conference
Campus Box 339
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80310-0339

Directed by the: CU Ethnic Studies Department
CU Campus, Boulder
Ketchum Room 30
Phone: (303) 492-7051
Email: liberate@colorado.edu
Web: http://spot.colorado.edu/~liberate

***

Re-distributed as a public service by the:
Colorado Hemp Initiative Project
P.O. Box 729, Nederland, CO 80466
Hotline: (303) 784-5632
Email: (cohip@levellers.org)
Web: http://www.welcomehome.org/cohip.html
"Fighting over 60 years of lies and dis-information
with 10,000 years of history and fact."
ARE YOU REGISTERED TO VOTE???

***

To be added to or removed from our mailing list,
send email with the word SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE in the title.

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

Return Of Some Old Friends (List Subscriber Notes Prohibitionist Crusaders,
Lambdon Families In Action, Is Now Marijuana: Advances In Research,
In Omaha, Nebraska - Still Associated With Drug Watch International)

Date: Mon, 09 Feb 1998 20:06:03 -0800
From: Pierre Honeyman 
To: mattalk@islandnet.com
Subject: Return of some old friends

Remember Lambdon Families in Action? Well, they're back with a new
name and a prominent link at Drug Watch International (but based out of
Omaha, Nebraska). They now call themselves "Marijuana: Advances in
Research" although, from what I can tell, their site is exactly the same
as it was 6 months ago. They include such nuggets as, "Australian
Methadone Program Fail", which is really a report on the use of private
methadone clinics in Australia and contains absolutely no language to
the effect of failure. In fact, it concluded that well organized
clinics were rated better by the patients and had better results than
ones that were less well organized and had some unsurprising results in
that unemployed heroin users were the first to leave programs at private
clinics since they couldn't pay. Other mysterious items include an item
about the discovery of the gene which may cause schizophrenia, although
what it has to do with drug use is quite beyond me since it clearly
states that many schizophrenics are heavy smokers and that they are, in
fact, trying to self medicate. How this indicates that drugs are
dangerous (the category this item is found under) is quite mysterious.

It's really not that surprising to find these folks mentioned at
Drug Watch, since almost all of the research they cite comes from Drug
Watch members (primarily E. Voth and Janet Lapey (who I haven't actually
seen any original research from).

One thing I did notice is that they are claiming all the research
which indicates marijuana is not a monster is old and outdated. Quite
funny considering some of the best nails in that coffin have come out in
the past two years, mainly the study done at UCLA which indicates that
marijuana smokers lung function does not decrease over time (1997), the
study in Australia which finds that the general health of marijuana
smokers is approximately the same as the general population, indicating
no real health risks from smoking, and the study by Kaiser-Permanente,
also of last year, which found no increased risk of morbidity (although
it did find that more marijuana smokers were AIDS patients, really not
all that surprising) from smoking marijuana.

Pierre

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Test Can Detect Heavy Drinkers ('Milwaukee Journal Sentinel' Says Research
Using Hundreds Of Milwaukee Test Subjects,
Published In 'Journal Of Clinical Epidemiology,'
Has Discovered Combination Of Inexpensive Tests That Can Identify
Heavy Drinkers With 98 Percent Accuracy)

Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 11:15:40 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar 
Subject: MN: US WI: Test Can Detect Heavy Drinkers
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: "Frank S. World" 
Pubdate: Mon, 09 Feb 1998
Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Author: John Fauber
Contact: jsedit@onwis.com
Fax: (414) 224-8280
Website: http://www.jsonline.com/

TEST CAN DETECT HEAVY DRINKERS

Discovery raises concerns about privacy, Medical College researchers admit

Researchers who used hundreds of Milwaukee area drinkers as test subjects
say they have developed a battery of common, inexpensive tests that can
identify heavy drinkers with 98% accuracy -- for as long as a week after the
last drink.

The researchers readily admit the potential for invading privacy by improper
use of their discovery, the research for which was partially paid for by the
Technology Development Fund of the Wisconsin Department of Development.

"It could be abused, yes," said Andre Balla, an associate professor of
pathology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. "That is one of the
concerns."

But the test -- which can be done for less than $50 -- could help identify
people with drinking problems and get them the help they need, said Balla
and James Harasymiw, a Big Bend psychologist who developed the test and
holds a patent on it.

The study was conducted by researchers from the Medical College of Wisconsin
in Wauwatosa and the College of Medicine at the University of Iowa. It was
published in a recent issue of the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology.

For their study, the researchers located 426 heavy drinkers and 188 light
drinkers -- all men -- mostly by recruiting them through Milwaukee area
community organizations. The heavy drinkers came from detoxification
centers, churches and outpatient treatment facilities.

There were not enough women recruited to produce a valid sample, so all
women were dropped from the study.

Harasymiw said the test is a good way to determine whether people who are in
treatment for drinking are truthful about abstaining. He is working to
modify the test so it can be used with pregnant women to help prevent fetal
alcohol syndrome.

"The idea is to use it to benefit people," he said.

Volunteers from detoxification centers were given vouchers for food or gifts
for participating. Community organizations were paid for the volunteers they
recruited.

Light drinkers were recruited from four churches, support groups for
recovering alcoholics and drug abusers, a college campus, a golf outing and
a work setting.

Who's a Heavy Drinker?

A heavy drinker was defined as someone who consumed more than 700 ounces of
alcohol in the past year -- the equivalent of about four drinks a day.
However, the mean consumption among the Milwaukee heavy drinkers was more
than five times that amount.

The light drinkers consumed a mean of 39 ounces of alcohol, or about 80
drinks a year.

After identifying the heavy drinkers through interviews, the researchers ran
a battery of 40 tests on their blood samples. Eventually, they found that 10
of those tests, taken as a whole, could be used to develop a mathematical
model that would identify the heavy drinkers.

The 10 tests include HDL cholesterol, a white blood cell test, kidney and
liver function tests and hydration tests.

Individually, the tests can't accurately predict drinking habits. But taken
together, they were 98% accurate in identifying heavy drinkers and 95%
accurate in identifying light drinkers.

For a smaller group of heavy drinkers who had not consumed alcohol for a
period of one week to one month, the test still proved 88% accurate.

The test's accuracy was greater when it was used for heavy drinkers of lower
socioeconomic status than middle class heavy drinkers, for whom the test was
about 85% accurate.

That's largely due to the poorer nutrition and health habits of heavy
drinkers from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, said Arthur Hartz, the
study's main author and a former professor of family medicine at the Medical
College of Wisconsin. He now is a professor of family medicine at the
University of Iowa.

In addition, there is some evidence that low-income heavy drinkers abuse
alcohol more than middle-class heavy drinkers, Hartz said.

In terms of accuracy, the test "blows away" other methods used to determine
whether someone has engaged in heavy drinking, Harasymiw said. The best test
now on the market has an accuracy range of 60% to 80%, he said.

Aside from any legal considerations, employers likely would have an interest
in using such a test, especially employers that are concerned about safety
and absenteeism issues, said Beth McFarland, vice president of staffing
services at ProStaff, a Milwaukee employment firm.

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DUI Cops' New Ploy ('Tacoma News Tribune' Says Police 'Emphasis Patrol'
This Friday, February 13, In East Pierce County, Washington, Will Be First
In Nation To Hand Out Not Only Citations And Warnings But Also Leaflets
Detailing Lives Of People Killed Or Seriously Injured
In Drunken-Driving Accidents)

From: "W.H.E.N." 
To: "Hemp Talk" 
Subject: HT: ART: WA DUI cops new ploy
Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 21:25:54 -0800
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net

Tacoma News Tribune
Tacoma, Washington

Drunken-driving patrol to be armed with sobering proof of what's at stake
Area officers to hand out leaflets detailing lives of victims of highway
drunks

Anthony K. Albert
The News Tribune

If you're caught in Friday's crackdown on drunken driving, expect to get a
very somber lesson in traffic safety.

In what they say is a first in the nation, local law enforcement officers
will hand out not only citations and warnings but also leaflets detailing
the life of a person killed or seriously injured in a drunken-driving
accident.

The Feb. 13 emphasis patrol will be dedicated to Roger Conant, whose car
was rear-ended by a drunken driver in 1971 in California. Conant survived
but with severe head injuries that left him with the mental capacity of a
3-year-old.

Though emphasis patrols aren't new, it's a new approach to force suspected
drunken drivers to so vividly face the consequences of their actions, said
Sheri Badger, coordinator of the East Pierce County DUI Emphasis Patrol.

Many drunken drivers think of themselves as casualties of the system and
don't realize there's another side of the story until they're told about
their victims and the victims' families, said Badger, who thought up the
new approach.

"I'm hoping we can show them why we're doing this," she said. "We're not
out to get people. We're out to save people."

Badger said the idea came to her a year ago when she read about a special
event dedicated to victims of drunken-driving crashes.

John Moffat, Washington Traffic Safety Commission director, endorses the
idea of calling attention to the losses families and communities have
suffered.

During December's monthlong emphasis patrol, there were no drunken-driving
fatalities in the state for the first time since 1980, said Badger who
quoted statistics from the Washington Traffic Safety Commission.

With that success, officers from Fife, Puyallup, Sumner, Bonney Lake,
Pierce County and the Washington State Patrol decided to continue the
patrols in each agency's jurisdiction once a month throughout the year.

"They feel like they've made a dent in the problem they see all the time,"
Badger said.

This week's emphasis patrol will be from 8 p.m. Friday to 4 a.m. Saturday.
Officers did not reveal which jurisdiction will be closely patrolled.

Handing out leaflets during the checks will make a difference, officers
say.

"It's gonna bring it home to the people we talk to, anytime you can put a
face on a victim," said Puyallup police officer Mike Henry.

"Education is 100 percent of the job," said Pierce County sheriff's Sgt.
Roger Gooch.

The most recent emphasis patrol took place Jan. 24 in Fife.

In a nine-hour period, 12 officers made 173 traffic stops. Within a 6
1/2-hour period that night, officers made 17 DUI arrests - four times the
average on a weekend night.

The officers issued 31 infractions, sent 11 people to jail for criminal
traffic violations, arrested two people on warrants, performed one
drug-related arrest and arrested two people on alcohol-related charges.

And no alcohol-related traffic accidents happened that night.

"It went extremely well," said Fife police Sgt. Brad Blackburn.

The first drunken driver was caught 20 minutes after the patrol started,
Henry said. And one man driving a van with a burned-out headlight was
stopped three times.

"Hey, what's going on tonight?" the man asked officers, Puyallup police
officer Bob Thompson recalled. "Tonight's not a good night to drive through
Fife."

* Anyone interested in dedicating an emphasis patrol to a victim of a
drunken-driving accident should call Sheri Badger at 798-6112.

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

Drugs And Alcohol - Deadly Duo For Teens (Sermon
In 'San Luis Obispo Telegram-Tribune' Inspired By Recent CASA Study,
'Behind Bars,' Notes Leading Substance Abuse Crime In US Is Drunken Driving,
With 1.4 Million Arrests Annually Costing Legal System $5.2 Billion)

Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 11:25:48 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)
Subject: MN: US CA: Editorial: Drugs And Alcohol: Deadly Duo For Teens
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Jo-D Harrison
Source: San Luis Obispo Telegram-Tribune
Contact: slott@slnt01.sanluisobispo.com
Pubdate: Mon, 09 Feb 1998
Author: Robert Wallace Ed. D.
Page: B-3, SLO County Section

DRUGS AND ALCOHOL: DEADLY DUO FOR TEENS

The teen years are a time to venture out into the world, to test your
independence and make decisions without the help of your parents. Yes, it's
a time to experiment, and experiments involve trial and error - making
mistakes.

But some experiments may not be worth it, especially those involving
alcohol and drugs. It's not enough to be told, "Just say no." Teens feel
indestructible and rarely think of the long-range danger of becoming
addicted to a chemical substance. But getting high can exact a stiff price.

Of the 1.7 million men and women behind bars in the United States, 80
percent are there at least partly because of drugs or alcohol. That's a
staggering statistic.

A recent study by Columbia University's National Center on Addiction and
Substance Abuse found that almost 1.4 million offenders in state and
federal prisons and local jails had violated drug or alcohol laws. They
either stole property to purchase drugs or alcohol, were high when they
committed a crime or had a history of abuse and addiction. For many of the
inmates, all three were the case, according to Joseph Califano, chairman of
the Columbia Center and former secretary of Health, Education and Welfare.

Furthermore, many hundreds of thousands of these inmates would be
law-abiding, working, tax-paying citizens and responsible parents if they
had lived sober lives. Substance abuse was the sole factor behind their
criminal conviction.

The leading substance abuse crime in the United States is drunken driving,
accounting for over 1.4 million arrests yearly, at a cost to the legal
system of $5.2 billion. Alcohol is also more closely associated with
violent crime than any other drug, followed by crack cocaine, powder
cocaine and heroin.

Teens, I know that some of you will experiment with alcohol and drugs with
the philosophy that "I'm going to try it just to see what it's like. I
don't plan to get hooked." Just remember that many of those now behind bars
had the same philosophy. Be wise; stay drug-free!

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

Parents And Drugs (Letter To Editor Of 'San Francisco Examiner' Says Parents
Not To Blame For Juveniles Getting Involved In Drugs - Control Not Possible
When Society 'Gives More Rights To Minors' Than To Parents)

Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 19:08:31 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar 
Subject: MN: US CA: LTE: Parents And Drugs
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: "Frank S. World" 
Pubdate: Mon, 09 Feb 1998
Source: San Francisco Examiner
Contact: letters@examiner.com
Website: http://www.examiner.com

PARENTS AND DRUGS

Eugene Del Carlo (letter, Feb. 1) asks, "Where are the parents of all these
juveniles who are getting involved in drugs?" He adds, "Probably most of
these parents can't even conduct their own lives responsibly, much less
have children."

In response to him: "Most of us" are trying to raise our children in a
society that would appear to give more rights to minors than to us. We are
trying to provide them with a happy childhood in an environment that is
constantly bombarding them with horrific acts of violence and conflicting
images relative to alcohol and drug usage.

If we suspect drug use, we cannot have our child tested without his or her
consent. Why? It would violate their "rights."

We are trying to raise our children in a society that constantly
second-guesses our motives.

Please don't make assumptions about who or where "the parents" are.
Instead, ensure that parents be included in those actions having to do with
their children.

Parents should have faith in their parenting skills. They should get
involved and speak up for their families' rights.

Diana Garcia
San Francisco

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

The Jails Are Full (Letter To Editor Of 'Orange County Register'
Says That's Reason Behind Crime Reduction In California, United States)

Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 19:30:19 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)
Subject: MN: US CA: PUB LTE: The Jails Are Full
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk:John W.Black
Source: Orange County Register
Contact: letters@link.freedom.com
Pubdate: Mon, 9 Feb, 1998

THE JAILS ARE FULL

Just figured out why there has been a reduction of crime in California and
The United States. All the hard-core and petty criminals are in jail.

We will have to wait for a new generation of hard-core and petty criminals
to take their place.

John Calcara Jr.
Orange

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

Conditional Sentencing Probed - Answers Sought To Tough Questions
About Controversial Alternative ('Halifax Daily News' Says It Costs $55,000
To Incarcerate Average Inmate In Nova Scotia,
$4,000 For Community Supervision)

Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 11:25:22 -0400 (AST)
Sender: Chris Donald 
From: Chris Donald 
To: mattalk@listserv.islandnet.com
cc: editor@mapinc.org
Subject: CAN: prison cost and conditional sentencing stats.

Halifax Daily News
letterstoeditor@hfxnews.southam.ca

Monday, February 9, 1998

Conditional sentencing probed

Answers sought to tough questions about controversial alternative

By RACHEL BOOMER-- The Daily News

It's a sentencing option that has stirred much controversy since its
inception in September 1996. In Nova Scotia, it has kept convicted
wife-beater Vernon Hatcher, drunk driver Ralph Parker, and gambling
cop Edward Sisk out of jail. Some complain it's an easy way out, while
others say it helps criminals get their lives back on track.

It's conditional sentencing - an option that lets criminals serve
their time at home instead of behind bars - and it may be due for some
fine-tuning, says the Ottawa group in charge of sentencing reform.

"We've been looking at ways of improving the enforcement mechanism in
particular,'' says David Daubney, sentencing reform team co-ordinator
for the federal justice department. He says the group will present its
suggestions to Justice Minister Anne McLellan shortly.

"There's a fair amount of breach activity, I would say .... I think it
means that the conditional sentences are being enforced, which is
important for credibility,'' Daubney continues. The national breach
rate is 10 to 12 per cent.

It's no secret that putting a person in jail is expensive. It costs an
average of $55,000 a year to jail a criminal. Supervising them in the
community costs only $4,000.

But Daubney says cost wasn't the driving factor behind the law, which
only applies to offenders serving non-violent crimes that would
normally net them less than two years in prison.

He says they're more likely to get help for what causes them to commit
crimes in the first place - drug and alcohol addiction, sexual abuse,
or poorly controlled anger - in the community.

As of last August, judges had handed down 13,000 conditional sentences
across Canada for crimes ranging from fraud and first-time impaired
driving to drug-related offences. Offenders are given a list of
conditions to follow, including curfews, mandatory counselling or
community service.

If authorities suspect they've breached those conditions, it's the
offender's responsibility to prove otherwise to a judge. Fail that
test, and they could spend the rest of their sentence behind bars.

Most legal professionals say they support conditional sentences as a
way to get repeat offenders out of the system once and for all. But
they say the sentences haven't been without problems.

Because breaching a conditional sentence isn't a crime in itself, it's
unclear whether police can arrest an offender if it happens, or if
courts can issue warrants for them to appear in court. It's questions
such as those that Daubney's team is trying to answer.

"It's been a real eye-opener, especially for some of the offenders
who've been through the system before and think that a conditional
sentence is going to be a cakewalk,'' says Dartmouth parole supervisor
Janis Aitken.

"For some, conditional sentences are a real break and they really
value it."

"Stan" is one of those people. Two years ago, he got into a heated
argument with his mother, pushing her and throwing her TV, VCR and
religious textbooks out of an apartment window. She called police and
had him charged with assault.

An alcoholic, drug abuser and habitual offender who had been in and
out of jail since he was 16, Stan was fully prepared to go to jail
again - and nearly fell off his chair when the judge gave him an
18-month conditional sentence. He's finishing the last few months of
his sentence, and has been sober for most of that time.

"I had to get busy. If I'd been in jail, I would've just been laying
around, living off the government. I wouldn't have done anything about
my addictions, I wouldn't have taken any hard looks at the choices
I've made .... Here, I'm making things happen,'' explained the
40-year-old, who didn't want his real name used.

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

A Drug-Free State Just Isn't Normal (Essay In Britain's 'New Statesman'
Says 'War On Drugs Is Unwinnable, Based On False Premises And Puritanism')

Date: Sat, 07 Feb 1998 14:41:54 -0500
To: DrugSense News Service 
From: Richard Lake 
Subject: MN: UK: A Drug-free State Just Isn't Normal
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Steve Young
Pubdate: Jan. 9, 1998
Source: New Statesman
Mail: New Statesman, 7th Floor, Victoria Station House, 191 Victoria
Street, London SW1E5NE
Page: 24-25
Contact: new-statesman@geo2.poptel.org.uk

A DRUG-FREE STATE JUST ISN'T NORMAL

The war on drugs is unwinnable, based on false premises and puritanism. But
begin from a different assumption and we might solve the problem.

No one can envy the Home Secretary, Jack Straw, and his drugs tsar, Keith
Hellawell, in their "struggle" against drugs. Law-makers, like physicians,
must be seen to be decisive even in the absence of robust data, and what an
awesome thing to have to legislate on matters so intransigent and
intricate, and yet so significant. Whatever they do will lead to trouble of
one kind or another and they, in the end, will take the blame. They deserve
our sympathy.

But they would deserve it more if they gave any sign of open-mindedness.
The "war" against drugs has been waged as forceful as any since the
Crusades but in no sense is it being won. Indeed it is unwinnable" it is
impossible even to imagine what "victory" would look like. What is
obviously needed more than anything else - legislation, policemen, or
"drugs education" for four year olds - is to rethink all our beliefs about
drugs from first principles, and our attitudes towards them. Once we truly
put our preconceptions up for grabs and ask on what they are founded, the
drugs "problem" starts to look very different.

To be sure, the heavyweight drugs are frightening. They take us on a
Faustian journey of dreams in which we can lose sight of "reality," with no
apparent guarantee of return. Yet it is naive and biologically odd to
suppose that it is normal, or natural, for the brain to be free of
psychotropic agents. It is not sophistry to point out that the body itself
constantly assails the brain with such substances: adrenaline,
testosterone, progesterone, endorphins. These agents are the stuff of
emotions.

Of course we cannot feel without them but also, more intriguingly, we can
hardly be said to think without them. because the emotions are the ultimate
arbiters of truth, and without emotion our thoughts have no guidance. We
are swayed by evidence, but in the end we believe what we "feel" is right.
Computers are stupid not because the cannot calculate - of course the can -
but because the have no emotion and so do not know or care what is true.
The substances that assail our brains are part of the thinking process.
Without them we can have no concept of truth.

Surely, though, we can distinguish between the self-generated agents that
our bodies and nerves produce for their own purpose and those that we
introduce from outside? In practice the distinction is not so obvious.
Human beings, like all other living creatures, are evolved, an we carry the
physiological inheritance of our ancestors. Our primate forebears were
largely herbivorous, and the plants they ate were wild. Wild plants are
shot through with pharmacologically powerful agents, most of which evolved
to repel importunate herbivores and many of which focus on the nervous
system. Most drugs of all kinds, and virtually all psychotropic agents,
derive from plants or fungi. Many of these seep through the blood-brain
barrier - otherwise they would have no effect.

In other words, the brains of our ancestors evolved over 50 million years
in the presence of psychotropic agents. If we were not adapted to them, we
would not have survived. Typically, in evolution, such adaptation first
takes the form of detoxification, for these agents (teleologically
speaking) are intended to poison. But evolution is nothing if not
opportunist: the things that creatures at first learn to dispose of, they
later learn to use; and when they use, they soon come to depend on. this is
why our bodies now require the bizarre shortlist of agents known as
vitamins - extraneous materials produced in nature by plants and microbes,
to which we have adapted, and on which we have come to rely.

The agents we call "drugs" can be seen as vitamin analogues that happen to
be focused on the nervous system. When our ancestors became full-time
farmers, they produced crops that were high-yielding and therefore bland -
for high yields and fancy chemistry each require energy and so are in
conflict. Nowadays we consider a diet free of psychotropic agents to be
"normal," and any addition as an imposition. Yet evolution suggests the
reverse: that modern, civiliised, people are in a constant state of
pharmacological impoverishment. The condition we consider normal is one of
deprivation. Our bodies know this. That is why the desire for drugs is so
hard to contain. Their absence is against our nature.

Of course, the notion that constant assault by psychotropic agents is
"natural" does not imply that it is right. As David Hume observed in the
18th century: "'Is' is not 'ought.'" Yet such a realisation encourages a
shift in our attitudes. To ban drugs is not, as we commonly perceive, to
revert to the norm. It is a positive act of asceticism, Puritanism in
action. I tend to be rather puritanical myself, and am no druggie, sating
myself with brisk walks and the occasional Bell's whisky. But such
Puritanism seems odd in this otherwise most unpuritanical age.

Surely, though, such musing is dwarfed by the facts: the deaths, the
addiction, the sheer misery? Well, I have children, too, and am as anxious
as anybody to reduce the dangers. But what are these "facts"? Of course
people become horribly addicted to heroin, and die from it. But is this
really typical, or even particularly common? American soldiers in Vietnam
took "serious" drugs in the perfectly reasonable belief that for them there
might be no tomorrow; yet most of them, when they got home, simply stopped
taking them in the way that any of us might give up tequila after a holiday
in Mexico. Tequila is what we drink abroad; at home we drink beer.

Brian Jones of the Stones died of too many drugs, but Johnny Rotten, world
champion of punks, simply gave up. He says he was lucky - but perhaps it is
truer to suggest that Jones was unlucky.

Of course all this is anecdotal, but that is precisely the point. For so,
disgracefully, is the evidence which says that addiction and the horrors
that ensue is the norm. We simply do not know how often, or how inevitably,
drug-taking turns bad. This could indeed be the norm, but equally probably
it is rare. By the same token, relatively few drinkers become alcoholics.
If we saw only the down-and out boozers, alcohol would seem as bad to us as
heroin does now.

But is there really no good evidence? Surely there are hundreds of studies
of heavy drugs and many thousands of cases? Indeed so, but all are deeply
flawed by what statisticians call confounding variables. If medicinal drugs
were judges so sloppily, nothing could ever be prescibed.

Because the street drugs are illegal, they are unregulated: what is outside
the law is beyond its reach. All the refinements that make doctors' drugs
relatively safe are missing from street drugs. They are impure, not to say
adulterated. The dose of active components can easily vary by a
thousandfold. Preparation and presentation are left to hazard. Every
pharmacologist knows that content is only half what matters, and the other
half is formulation: the refinements that modify absorption and metabolism.
this is why medicinal drugs are expensive. The drugs that doctors prescribe
are heavy-duty and they would be horrific, too, if they were not so pure
and administered in beautifully regulated structure and dose. So what do
the studies that affect to show the horrors of street drugs actually
signify? Are they better than the anecdotes from Vietnam? Is it sensible to
wage "war" on such a basis? Shouldn't we at least have some proper data?

Then again, because the street drugs are illegal they are unsocialised.
although the influence of socialisation is hard to judge, it is clearly
crucial. We might all drink ourselves into pleasant oblivion at any time,
and high among the reasons that most of us do not is shame. Our friends
wouldn't talk to us if we got ourselves drunk too often or unpleasantly.
Social control, in short, is finely tuned. But on the street there isn't
any - just pressure to take more. What would alcohol be like without
socialisation? Would it be better than heroin?

So what should we do? Well, to legalize all existing drugs overnight would
obviously be precipitate, although we should, to set the ball rolling, lift
the nonsense that surrounds marijuana. this does not mean removing legal
restraint, but imposing it: the same kinds of regulations that restrict
alcohol. We should, however, declare intent. Begin by framing the
principle: that, in general, it is better to allow than to prohibit and
that proscription is a mark of failure. the we could approach the principal
drugs case by case. First we have to find what they actually do to people -
the vital knowledge which at present is entrusted to anecdote. We need to
know more pharmacology, to find out exactly what each part of each molecule
contributes, and to make adjustments: perhaps enhance those parts that
bring sweet dreams and remove the parts that promote addiction, for there
is no reason to assume a priori that the two are ineluctably linked. Modern
pharmacology could transform the picture: it is a high-class act. Image
would be important though, for we are talking of social drugs. Bass
Charrington might be a more appropriate manufacturer than say, Glaxo Wellcome.

Then, in a few decades, we would be able to see how the drugs that at
present excite such terror behave when they are well-made, sold in
respectable places and socialised. we would of course eliminate huge areas
of organised crime, as only the very stupid would pay a fortune for junk
when they could get the real McCoy for the price of a beer. The results of
such an initiative could hardly be worse than the present scenario. When we
have some proper facts we could take stock.

Jack Straw and Keith Hellawell are facing their respective tasks
heroically. but it would be better, and a great novelty, to base political
endeavor on ideas that were true.

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

Saddam's Son Made Millions Shipping Cocaine To Britain (Britain's
'Sunday Times' Alleges Oldest Son Of Saddam Hussein Part Of Iraqi Plot
To Flood Britain, Europe With The Drug)

Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 11:16:30 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar 
Subject: MN: UK: Saddam's Son Made Millions Shipping Cocaine To Britain
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Zosimos 
Pubdate: Mon, 09 Feb 1998
Subj: Saddam's son made millions shipping cocaine to Britain
Source: Sunday Times (UK)
Contact: editor@sunday-times.co.uk

SADDAM'S SOM MADE MILLIONS SHIPPING COCAINE TO BRITAIN

SADDAM HUSSEIN'S elder son, Uday, helped to run a multi-million-pound
racket smuggling cocaine into Britain and the rest of Europe, according to
lawyers for a high-ranking Iraqi defector.

Details of the alleged Iraqi plot to flood Britain and Europe with the drug
are said to have been provided to the British and American authorities by
Majid al-Samarra'i, a former Iraqi ambassador in Venezuela, whose family is
close to Saddam. Solicitors for the defector, who is talking to the
intelligence services about the operation of the Iraqi secret services,
claim they have seen documents showing how some of the cocaine was
transported from Venezuela on British Airways flights to Heathrow.

Officials at MI6, the British foreign intelligence service, said that,
while they were aware of Samarra'i's presence in Britain, they could not
discuss his case. The Home Office confirmed that an application from him
for political asylum was being considered by Jack Straw, the home
secretary.

Samarra'i was held at Heathrow three months ago after trying to enter
Britain on a false Venezuelan passport. He was detained for six weeks
before being released to pursue his claim for asylum.

His lawyers say he has documents that relate to alleged shipments of
cocaine from Venezuela to Europe in the 1980s and 1990s. They give details
of secret bank accounts in which the Iraqi security service is thought to
have stashed millions of dollars. According to legal sources, one document
purports to show a shipment of more than 140kg - worth between £3.5m and
£4.2m at current street prices - on a BA flight from Caracas to Heathrow
two years ago.

Samarra'i told his solicitors that Uday Hussein had "indirect" control over
the trade. It is well established that Uday and Qusay, Saddam's younger
son, oversee a number of international smuggling operations to help to
finance their family's extravagant lifestyle.

Uday's jealous control of the sanctions-busting business has led to blood
feuds among his relatives and is thought to be connected to the murder of
eight Iraqis in Amman, Jordan, last month.

The defector says he faces certain death if he returns to Iraq; but he is
being shunned by Iraqi exiles, who are convinced he has been planted as a
spy. Samarra'i, 49, is one of the most senior Iraqi officials to defect to
the West in recent years. He fled his post in Caracas last year after an
alleged assassination attempt at his home.

He claims supporters smuggled him out of the country and over the next 11
months he travelled a circuitous route via the Dutch Antilles, Cuba and
Portugal to England. Maria Garcia, his Venezuelan mistress, has travelled
with him. His wife, who lives in Libya with his children, is said to be a
distant relative of Saddam.

General Wafiq al-Samarra'i, former head of Iraq's military intelligence,
said he could vouch for Majid, who is not a relative, although he could not
say whether the drug allegations were true.

Yesterday Samarra'i was in hiding in a flat in Knightsbridge. Initially he
declined to comment but later he told The Sunday Times that detailed
statements to journalists by Ghazi Khan, his solicitor, linking him to
knowledge of the drug trade were unauthorised.

He denied being involved in the trade. "I'm a diplomat and I have no
connection with this. I am not a businessman or a trader. How do I know
such a thing?"

Samarra'i said his full case would be heard later this month. His lawyers
have suggested that, if Britain rejects his asylum plea, he may be offered
asylum in America.

A senior Iraqi opposition source said it was known that Samarra'i had been
recruited by the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the early
1990s and his activities had been reported back to Baghdad after his wife
reportedly found $40,000 (£24,000) and secret papers in his safe.

Asked whether he had ever worked for the CIA, Samarra'i said: "I am an
Iraqi diplomat and ex-ambassador. I came here to seek asylum."

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

Man Claims He Uses Cannabis To Relieve Pain Of Cancer (Ireland's 'Examiner'
Makes It Sound Like Nobody Has Ever Used Cannabis For Such A Purpose Before)

Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 17:07:19 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar 
Subject: MN: Ireland: Man Claims He Uses Cannabis To Relieve Pain Of Cancer
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Zosimos 
Pubdate: Mon, 09 Feb 1998
Source: The Examiner (Ireland)
Author: Michael Commins
Contact: exam_letters@examiner.ie

MAN CLAIMS HE USES CANNABIS TO RELIEVE PAIN OF CANCER

A MAN charged with possession of cannabis resin claimed that he smoked it
to relieve the pain of cancer.

The Dubliner who now lives in County Mayo appeared before Ballinrobe Court,
where the case was adjourned for a probation report.

Liam Boyle, of Kildotia, was charged with the possession of cannabis resin
on May 5 last year.

Garda Frank Kelly told the court that with garda Eileen Joyce he searched
the premises of Mary McNeill and Boyle, who live in two mobile homes near
The Neale.

In Ms McNeill's mobile home they found a container with a brown substance
that proved to be cannabis resin. The quantity was about 10 grams.

Ms McNeill told them that it was not her property. She said it belonged to
Mr Boyle.

"He acknowledged that it was his property," Garda Kelly said. "He said he
had cancer and that the cannabis helped to alleviate the pain."

Mr Boyle told the court that he had suffered severe injuries in a motorbike
accident.

He said he had had 17 sessions of radium treatment and had been in a lot of
pain.

Sean Foy, solicitor, said this was his client's first offence and he asked
that Mr Boyle's medical condition be taken into consideration.

Judge Shiels wondered whether there was any way that the defendant's
condition could be alleviated rather than by using cannabis, as it is a
prohibited drug.

He adjourned the case for a probation report until April 7.

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

Ex-IRA Drugs Enforcer In £5M Cannabis Deal (Britain's 'Sunday Times' Says Man
Who Has Become Significant Player In Cork Drugs Scene, Dealing In Cannabis,
Ecstasy, Had Begun Easing Away From Irish Republican Army After 20 Years)

Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 11:16:53 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar 
Subject: MN: IRELAND: Ex-IRA Drugs Enforcer In 5m Cannabis Deal
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Zosimos 
Pubdate: Mon, 09 Feb 1998
Source: Sunday Times (UK)
Contact: editor@sunday-times.co.uk

EX-IRA DRUGS ENFORCER IN 5M CANNABIS DEAL

ONE of the men behind the £5m drugs consignment seized near Cahir, Co
Tipperary, last weekend is a former member of the IRA in Cork and was
involved in attacks on drug dealers in the city in the late 1980s, writes
Barry Roche.

The man, who is married and in his forties, had been a senior IRA figure in
the city for 20 years. He took part in a raid on the Ford factory in the
late 1970s and the abduction of John Corcoran, the IRA informer, in 1985.
He was also involved in vigilante-style punishment beatings against drug
dealers in the city. Together with his brother, he beat up one member of a
well-known family of dealers in the Knocknaheeny area.

The man, who lives in the north of the city, has been easing himself out of
republican activity over the past 18 months and has become a significant
player in the Cork drugs scene, dealing in cannabis and ecstasy.

Gardai believe the seized drugs were co-financed by the former IRA man and
three other dealers on the northside, each putting up about £300,000 to buy
the 500kg of cannabis resin at a wholesale price of £1.25m. The former IRA
member is also believed to have owned cannabis worth £400,000 found by
gardai in a wood in east Cork last month.

Gardai say recent seizures are having a significant impact on the cannabis
trade and have forced the wholesale price for a kilo up from £1,800 to
£3,000.

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

[End]