-------------------------------------------------------------------
Steven Douglas Dons And His Roommate, Jeffery Harlan Moore,
Face Child-Neglect And Drug Counts ('The Oregonian'
Notes Multnomah County District Attorney Is Throwing Book At Victim
Of Portland Marijuana Task Force Warrantless Break-In, And Now His Neighbor,
But Fails To Explain How A Plant That Never Killed Anyone,
Kept Behind Locked Door, Endangers A Visiting Child,
Or, When 7 Percent Of Population Is Using Illegal Drugs,
How Many Billions Of Dollars It Will Cost To Prosecute All Such Parents
And Put All Their Kids In Foster Homes)
Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 15:09:31 -0800
From: Paul Freedom (nepal@teleport.com)
Organization: Oregon State Patriots
To: Cannabis Patriots
"libnw@circuit.com"
Subject: CanPat> Shooting-PHONEY Charges of Roommate!
Sender: owner-cannabis-patriots-l@teleport.com
Steven Douglas Dons and his roommate, Jeffery Harlan
Moore, face child-neglect and drug counts
By Wendy Siporen
of The Oregonian staff
A Multnomah County grand jury Thursday added drug and
child neglect and endangerment charges against a man
accused of killing a Portland police officer, and also indicted
his roommate on similar charges.
Portland and Gresham police arrested the roommate,
Jeffery Harlan Moore, at 4:45 p.m. Thursday on the
campus of Mt. Hood Community College, where he works.
Three plainclothes detectives made the arrest without
incident, said Lt. Cliff Madison, a Portland police
spokesman. Moore, 44, is being held in the Justice Center
jail in lieu of $125,000 bail.
The new charges relate to a 51-plant marijuana grow
operation police say they found in the house and allegations
that Moore and Steven Douglas Dons had Moore's
children, ages 7 and 9, near the marijuana and unsecured
guns and ammunition. Moore's children were visiting early in
January from Nevada.
In addition to 13 counts that include aggravated murder,
attempted aggravated murder and assault, Dons, 37, now
faces one count of manufacture of a controlled substance,
one count of possession of a controlled substance and two
counts each of first-degree child neglect and recklessly
endangering another person.
Moore faces eight counts - the two drug charges related to
the marijuana; the two counts each of child neglect and
reckless endangering; and one count each of possession of
cocaine and methamphetamine. Police found inhaling
paraphernalia for cocaine and methamphetamine in the
house. The cocaine and methamphetamine were not in
"substantial quantities," said James McIntyre, a Multnomah
County senior deputy district attorney.
In an interview with The Oregonian last week, Moore
denied knowing about the 51-plant marijuana grow behind
what he said was a locked door. At the time, he said he did
not have an attorney and did not expect to be charged with
a crime.
"I'm not guilty of anything," he said. "Why should I be
charged?"
Authorities moved Dons on Tuesday to the Justice Center
jail from Adventist Medical Center. He is being held in the
jail's medical unit. Dons is in good condition but suffers from
partial paralysis, said Sgt. Brian Martinek, a Multnomah
County sheriff's spokesman. Martinek could not be more
specific but said doctors don't know whether the paralysis is
permanent.
Police say Dons shot and killed Portland police Officer
Colleen Waibel and injured two other officers on Jan. 27
when they entered the house where he lived at 2612 S.E.
111th Ave. Police suspected a marijuana grow in the house
and broke through the front door when they suspected
someone inside was destroying evidence by burning
marijuana in a woodstove.
Police found at least 10 guns in the house, including several
semiautomatic rifles.
Investigators have confirmed that what at first appeared to
be a grenade launcher in the house is actually a flare gun,
McIntyre said. They are still examining five devices that
appeared to be grenades. McIntyre said they appear to be
some kind of "modified charge," but he could not be more
specific.
Since the original indictment in the shooting was handed
down Feb. 4, the grand jury heard testimony from two
neighbors of the men, two police investigators and a crime
lab technician.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Criminals Force Police Into An Arms Race ('Oregonian' Article
Written In Response To Fatal Cop Shooting During Warrantless Break-In
By Portland Marijuana Task Force Makes It Sound Like
Police Don't Already Have A Military Arsenal At Their Disposal
That Has Already Cost City Six-Figure Legal Settlement To Victims)
Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 17:04:29 -0800
From: Paul Freedom
To: Cannabis Patriots
Subject: CanPat> Criminals force police into an arms race
The Oregonian
February 14, 1998
Criminals force police into an arms race
Like other agencies across the nation, Portland is
considering equipping officers with semiautomatic rifles
to match the firepower brought to bear by bad guys
By Jennifer Bjorhus
of The Oregonian staff
The final report recommending semiautomatic assault rifles
for Portland's police was on its way to the mayor.
In it, police warned of being outgunned by criminals with
sophisticated weapons and asked for $310,000 to attempt
to remedy the situation.
The meeting was never held. Minutes before noon that day,
Jan. 27, police say, Steven Dons opened fire from his
Southeast Portland house with an SKS 7.62 mm
semiautomatic rifle, killing one officer and wounding two.
Point made.
Mayor Vera Katz quickly announced that she supported the
Police Bureau's request.
Quietly, behind the consternation and outpouring of grief
following the shootout, Portland joins a growing number of
police departments around the country seeking to arm
officers with powerful semiautomatic rifles. It's a historic,
controversial shift in policing, a leap in power from the
handgun at the waistband that for decades has been the
symbol of U.S. law and order.
Special tactical units such as SWAT teams have used the
weapons for years. What's new is their widespread use by
regular patrol officers and others, such as drug units, even
as police departments herald the return of community
policing.
Just how many police departments have made the shift isn't
known. One firearms expert estimated as many as half.
>From Miami to nearby Lake Oswego, on-duty officers now
tote semiautomatic rifles.
Details of the report are sketchy, and the Portland Police
Bureau doesn't want to talk about it. The department
declined a Public Records Act request to see the report,
citing safety reasons.
Chief Charles Moose would confirm only that the study
recommends the city spend $310,000 during two years to
buy 166 Colt AR-15s, a semiautomatic rifle with a
shortened barrel, also called a carbine. The cost also
includes .223-caliber ammunition. The new rifles would
replace the 12-gauge shotguns street officers now have
mounted in their patrol cars and would be an addition to the
Glock 9 mm handguns most Portland officers carry.
The bureau has been discussing alternatives to the shotguns
for years, said Lt. Dave Benson of the bureau's training
division. In August, six months after a highly publicized
shootout between Los Angeles police and two heavily
armed bank robbers, the bureau began in earnest to study
new weapons. Yet, the exact type of .223-caliber bullets to
order, how to best train officers, where best to carry the
rifles and when they can be fired are decisions still to be
made, Benson said.
Supporters argue that police, patrolling the fault lines in a
violent society where guns are as cheap and plentiful as car
stereos, need parity with heavily armed criminals.
Firearms experts say that semiautomatic rifles are highly
accurate, easier to use and safer than shotguns and can be
fired from a much safer distance from a perceived threat. A
handgun, for instance, is reliable up to only about 25 yards.
In contrast, an AR-15 rifle can hit a dinner plate five blocks
away.
But the rifles' simplicity and intimidation value are not just
attractive to police officers. Semiautomatic rifles are
increasingly popular with gang members, Portland gang
detectives say.
"They penetrate the front facade of a house; they go through
cars, go through vests; they're higher capacity, you can get
30-round clips," explained Detective Stu Winn, a gang
detective in Portland's Northeast Precinct.
A 1995 U.S. Department of Justice report shows that
semiautomatic rifles are most popular with juvenile
offenders; a few state surveys of juvenile inmates indicated
that 20 percent to 35 percent of them had owned
semiautomatic rifles.
Critics fear the trend of police officers arming themselves
with high-powered rifles fosters a dangerous mind set in
police and might ratchet up a mini-arms race with criminals.
They also worry that stray bullets could hit innocent
bystanders.
One gun-control advocacy group, the Violence Policy
Center in Washington, D.C., likens the firepower difference
between a handgun and the AR-15 to "the difference
between a Stinger missile and a nuclear weapon."
Even some police departments are wary of the powerful
M-16 and AR-15 rifles shooting .223-caliber ammunition.
Miami's police recently approved the optional use of
semiautomatic rifles that fire less powerful 9 mm and
.45-caliber bullets used in handguns, said Sgt. Robert
Rambo, in charge of firearms for the Miami Police
Department. The officers must buy the rifles themselves. He
estimated that about 50 of 1,050 officers had done so.
After the shootout in Los Angeles, he said, some officers
clamored for M-16s.
"No way am I putting them in those guys' hands," he said.
"You have to weigh citizens' safety, especially in an urban
city like Miami."
Standoffs such as Portland's happen "once in a blue moon,"
he said. "Do you want to have police officers out there with
these types of rifles . . . and then they start blasting, and the
bad guys start blasting?"
Sgt. Marc Galloway of the Lake Oswego Police
Department said officers there have carried Heckler &
Koch MP5 9 mm semiautomatic rifles mounted in their cars
since 1991. It's a good program, he said, but one that
demands a lot of careful training.
"There's a big liability issue," he said. "It's going to only take
one bad situation, and all of a sudden everybody calls foul."
Tom Potter, former Portland police chief, said he struggles
between wanting police fully protected and not wanting
unnecessary weapons.
"I'm kind of torn," Potter said. "I don't want officers to think
that (rifle) somehow's going to be their salvation. I don't
want that kind of siege mentality in the police department."
Donald Clark, former Multnomah County sheriff and county
executive, agreed that police need parity with well-armed
criminals. But he feared semiautomatic rifles could push
community policing to its limit.
"It begins to change the whole role of police," he said. "It's
pretty tough to do (community policing) when you think
every door you knock on, someone is going to blow you
away. It changes the psychology. It changes the way they
view their jobs.
"Pretty soon, you have combat troops running around, and
that is different than the way police have historically been."
Proper training will be a critical issue, observed Portland
police Officer Eric Schober, who works in the drugs and
vice unit.
"Personally I don't feel we get enough training with just our
pistols, so that makes me a little nervous," he said. "And
now they're going to throw a new weapon at us?"
Still, Schober said, the extra distance rifles afford would be
welcome. Five years ago, an irate man shot his neighbor's
wife and baby boy with a pistol in North Portland. Schober,
stuck a half-block away, could not stop him with his
handgun.
"From where I was standing, there was no way I could take
a good shot," he said. "To take a shot from a distance
where we were with a pistol would have been dangerous."
His 12-gauge shotgun, with its rambling lead ball shot, also
would have been a mistake, he said, but a semiautomatic
rifle would have been great.
The problem isn't arming police with semiautomatic rifles,
it's that so many criminals have such powerful weapons,
said Dr. Linda Erwin, associate director of trauma at
Legacy Emanuel Hospital and a gun-control advocate.
"They're professionals," Erwin said of police. "My concern
is more about the fact that other people have them, and how
did that happen? That's what really disturbs me."
It also disturbs Leo Painton, president of the Portland
Police Association. He called the move to semiautomatic
rifles long overdue and said a shootout such as the recent
one in Southeast Portland was waiting to happen as more
people stockpile high-powered weapons.
"Nobody knows what's out there. What do we do, just sit
back and wait?" Painton said.
"Look what happened in L.A. They had to run into a gun
store to find guns that would compete with those bank
robbers."
Last Labor Day weekend, the Los Angeles Police
Department received 600 M-16 rifles donated from surplus
by the U.S. Army. The guns are being converted from
automatic to semiautomatic. Officers start training with the
new rifles this month, Sgt. Brian Gilman said.
The original plan, Gilman said, was for the M-16s to be
carried only in the cars of sergeants, who could issue them
to officers only when necessary. Now L.A. police are
considering giving the rifles to selected officers, who could
carry them in the trunks of their cars.
Interestingly, semiautomatic rifles are off-limits to officers in
New York.
"New York City police officers are not even allowed to
own those guns," Sgt. Cory Cuneo said.
Those who support the use of semiautomatic rifles in police
work acknowledge that no weapon will fix the infamous
uncertainty of the job. The rifle would simply be another
tool. It won't make well-armed bad guys go away.
"You're just playing the numbers," Schober said. "It
happened. It's going to happen again."
Jennifer Bjorhus covers crime issues for The
Oregonian's Crime, Justice and Public Safety Team. She
can be reached by phone at 294-7605 or by e-mail at
jbjorhus@news.oregonian.com.
***
HOW TO SUBSCRIBE TO CANNABIS PATRIOTS
Send e-mail to majordomo@teleport.com
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-------------------------------------------------------------------
Medical Marijuana Advocates Frustrated ('Bangor Daily News' Says
A Kennebec County Superior Court Judge Heard Arguments Friday
In Mainers' For Medical Rights Attempt To Get City Of Portland, Maine,
To Live Up To The Law And Certify Signatures For Initiative Petition)
Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 19:57:07 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)
Subject: MN: US ME: Medical Marijuana Advocates Frustrated
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Dave Fratello <104730.1000@compuserve.com>
Source: Bangor Daily News
Pubdate: Sat, 14 Feb 1998
Author: Susan Kinzie, Of the NEWS Staff
MEDICAL MARIJUANA ADVOCATES FRUSTRATED
AUGUSTA - Petitions bearing about 3,200 signatures reached Portland City
Hall, and a group trying to legalize medicinal use of marijuana was about
2,400 signatures short for a Feb. 2 deadline to get the question on the
November ballot.
A Kennebec County Superior Court judge heard the case Friday against the
city and the secretary of state, but said it could be late next week before
he makes a decision in this "somewhat novel and difficult issue."
Gary Wood, the Portland city attorney, left the hearing Friday saying,
"Something doesn't work here - something doesn't feel right."
The city, the secretary of state, and Mainers for Medical Rights all agreed
that Portland city employees had not certified petitions that they should
have certified by their deadline. They all agreed that the delay
disqualified Mainers for Medical Rights from getting their petitions with
the required 51,131 signatures into the secretary of state's office by the
deadline for the November 1998 ballot. But they couldn't agree on what to
do about it.
Wood said, "People feel very badly" that the petitions weren't certified by
the deadline. He said city employees who would have done it already were
working overtime to prepare for the special election Feb. 10. "We would
like to see this get on the ballot next November," he said.
Phyllis Gardiner, the assistant attorney general who was representing the
secretary of state said, "We have sympathy with the petitioners' situation.
There is no excuse for the city of Portland's refusal to act." But, she
went on to say, there is nothing in the law that allows them to waive
deadlines and fix everything up.
William Knowles, the attorney for Mainers for Medical Rights, spoke
forcefully and emotionally about fundamental constitutional rights such as
freedom of speech and political association having been denied. He asked
that the deadlines be waived.
But Judge Donald Alexander questioned the use of the U.S. Constitution in
the arguments, since it is the Maine Constitution which gives residents the
right to initiate legislation. He asked for more recent cases - those cited
were from 1915 and 1917 - and said he would have to do more research.
Gardiner said they had had less than 24 hours to prepare for the case,
which had to be heard quickly because the November ballots will be printed
soon.
The petitions, if certified, would still be valid for the November 1999
election, so Gardiner said the question would not be kept off the ballot,
but it might be delayed.
Craig Brown, a political consultant working for Mainers for Medical Rights,
said, "We've been frustrated by the process for weeks now. We basically
filed suit only because we were told that people were in agreement that we
had played by the rules and met all the deadlines and there should be a
remedy for something like this. But in current Maine law nobody knew how to
deal with it.
"I agree with our lawyer that having to deny the patients and the voters
who signed the petition wanting a debate and a vote on the issue in 1998 to
have to wait a whole year because of a bureaucratic snafu is just unfair.
We know patients who have either glaucoma or HIV or are undergoing
chemotherapy who live in fear every day," he said.
Michael Lindey, a veterinarian who used marijuana when he was having
chemotherapy, said, "They argued all kinds of things, the lawyers did. ...
I saw it quite simply. ... I saw it, hoping because the municipality was
delinquent, that we wouldn't be penalized. Well, we were. ... I thought
he'd say, 'Let 'em finish, and we'll give 'em an extension."'
Wood said, "I think the judge signaled that what he's heard so far isn't
enough to grant relief." He said the arguments make a lot of sense but
legally, they needed stronger grounds. Meanwhile, Portland city officials
will be working through the weekend to certify the petitions and will be
done by 4 p.m. Wednesday at the latest, he said. Wood said 30 other towns
also failed to finish their petitions but that there were too few
signatures for it to be an issue.
Lindey was philosophical as he waits for the decision next week. "The
signatures are still valid, so all the expense and effort wasn't wasted.
You have to accept what comes. ... As far as depriving people of the right
to use marijuana, the fact is they're using it now; nobody's being
prosecuted who has cancer - that's the reality."
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Judge To Decide Whether Petition Can Miss Deadline
('Portland Press Herald' Version)
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 23:04:30 -0500
To: DrugSense News Service
From: Richard Lake
Subject: MN: US ME: Judge To Decide Whether Petition Can Miss Deadline
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Dave Fratello <104730.1000@compuserve.com>
Source: Portland Press Herald
Author: Peter Pochna, Staff Writer
Pubdate: Saturday, Feb. 14, 1998
Contact: letters@portland.com
Website: http://www.portland.com/
JUDGE TO DECIDE WHETHER PETITION CAN MISS DEADLINE
A Group Says It Shouldn't Be Penalized Because Portland Failed To Certify
Signatures On Time.
AUGUSTA - A group working to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes in
Maine asked a judge on Friday to overturn the state's decision to reject
petitions that call for a statewide vote on the issue.
An attorney for the group Mainers for Medical Rights said the petitioners
met all the requirements under law, and the state's action violates their
right to free speech.
But an assistant attorney general argued that the state had no choice but
to reject the petitions because the City of Portland missed a deadline for
certifying some of the petitions.
The city received about 3,900 petitions on or before Jan. 23, and was
required to certify them within five business days. But the city still
hasn't certified them.
City Attorney Gary Wood said the city clerk's office was too busy working
on the Feb. 10 gay-rights referendum to get to the petitions.
''Everybody who was involved in the process feels badly about not getting
the job done on time,'' said Wood. ''If they have enough valid signatures,
I think they should be on the ballot.''
The court must decide if, by law, groups like Mainers for Medical Rights
must bear the consequences when a city or town fails to meet a
certification deadline. The conflict pits a law governing deadlines against
a law governing the people's right to petition their government.
Superior Court Judge Donald Alexander said he will take at least a week to
issue a ruling.
''This is a somewhat novel and difficult issue,'' Alexander said. The
ballot question proposed by Mainers for Medical Rights would limit the
legal use of marijuana to people who have AIDS, glaucoma or multiple
sclerosis and to cancer patients who are undergoing chemotherapy or
radiation therapy.
The state has decided that, since Portland failed to meet its certification
deadline, Mainers for Medical Rights' petition drive also failed.
If the judge overturns the state's decision, the Secretary of State's
Office will have to immediately start checking the validity of the
signatures . If the petitions contain more than 51,131 valid signatures,
the issue would earn a spot on the November ballot.
If the judge does not overturn the state's decision, the group will not be
able to get the issue on the November ballot. The group would have to try
for November 1999.
The group submitted 48,688 signatures to the Secretary of State's Off ice
before the Feb. 2 deadline. It would have had more than the required amount
if it had the 3,900 signatures from Portland.
But since it didn't have enough signatures, the secretary of state rejected
the petition.
Secretary of State Dan Gwadosky described the case as ''an unfortunate
situation.'' He said state law required him to reject the petitions because
of the deadline.
But, he added, ''We won't be disappointed if a court tells us to do this.''
Phyllis Gardiner, an assistant attorney general, told Judge Alexander that
ruling against the state would weaken the validity of constitutional
deadlines.
"If this one can be moved, what does a constitutional deadline mean?"
Gardiner asked.
She said forcing the petitioners to wait until 1999 would not violate
anyone's fundamental rights.
Not true, said William Knowles, an attorney for Mainers for Medical Rights.
''(The organization's members) exercised their constitutional right, they
did so in a timely manner, and the state actors have frustrated their
constitutional right,'' Knowles said. ''It's no justification to say,
'Maybe you can exercise your constitutional right tomorrow.' ''
Regardless of how the judge rules, there is a chance that Mainers for
Medical Rights don't have enough valid signatures to get on the November
ballot anyway.
Counting the Portland signatures, the group has a total of about 52,600
signatures from throughout the state. Typically, the state finds some
signatures that are not valid. Mainers for Medical Rights has a margin -
counting the Portland signatures - of fewer than 1,500 names.
Craig Brown, a consultant to Mainers for Medical Rights, said the group
does have enough valid signatures. Brown said he is surprised that the
state is fighting.
***
CASE FACTS
Here are the undisputed facts in the case of Mainers for Medical Rights vs.
The Secretary of State for the State of Maine:
* The Maine Constitution, article IV, part three, section 18, requires that
signatures submitted on behalf of a citizens initiative be filed in the
Secretary of State's Office by 5 p.m. on or before the 25th day after the
convening of the Legislature. This year, that date was Feb. 2.
* The Maine Constitution also says petitions must be delivered to the
appropriate municipal registrar for certification by the 10th business day
before the deadline for filing with the secretary of state. This year, that
was Jan. 23.
* The municipal registrar must certify petitions submitted within five
business days. Mainers for Medical Rights submitted 3,914 signatures to
the City of Portland by Jan. 23. But Portland still hasn't verified the
signatures.
* Mainers for Medical Rights submitted 48,688 signatures to the secretary
of state by Feb. 2. It could not submit the Portland signatures because of
the inaction by the City of Portland.
* The group needs 51,131 validated signatures to get its proposal on the
November ballot.
* Secretary of State Dan Gwadosky sent a letter to Mainers for Medical
Rights dated Feb. 6 stating that its petition was invalid because it did
not contain enough signatures.
* On Wednesday, the group filed suit against Gwadosky and the City of
Portland. On Friday, a superior court judge heard the case and said he
would issue a ruling no earlier than next Thursday.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
President Touts Cigarette Tax Hike ('Houston Chronicle' Says
Overeating Cigar Smoker Wants $1.10 Per Pack Increase
To Cut Teen Smoking In Half - Will Only Rich People Be Allowed To Smoke?
Hell Of A Way To Deglamorize Tobacco...)
Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 18:11:06 -0500
To: DrugSense News Service
From: Richard Lake
Subject: MN: US: President Touts Cigarette Tax Hike
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Art Smart
Source: Houston Chronicle
Contact: viewpoints@chron.com
Author: Nancy Mathis
Pubdate: Sat, 14 Feb 1998,
Page: 5A
Website: http://www.chron.com/
PRESIDENT TOUTS CIGARETTE TAX HIKE
$1.10 A Pack Increase Could Cut Teen Smoking In Half, Clinton Says
PHILADELPHIA -- President Clinton, trying to revive a settlement with the
tobacco industry, said Friday a new study shows a hike in cigarette taxes
could cut teen smoking by half.
The president, appearing before the nation's scientists, called on Congress
to act this year to pass bipartisan legislation. He endorsed a Senate
Democratic measure as a starting point.
Clinton later resumed his effort to raise money for Democrats who have
embraced the president despite sex scandal woes.
In an address to the American Association for the Advancement of Science,
Clinton said a new Treasury Department analysis indicates a cigarette tax
increase of $1.10 a pack could stop nearly 3 million young people from
smoking by 2003 and save 1 million lives.
"For years, our efforts to reduce smoking have been outmatched by
billion-dollar industry ad campaigns targeted at our children," Clinton
said. "Now we have the opportunity to save millions of those children from
a life of addiction and a premature and very preventable death."
The administration estimates that 3,000 young people start smoking every
day and 1,000 of them will die prematurely.
If cigarette taxes increase by $1.10 per pack, making it more expensive to
youths, an estimated 2.8 million would be discouraged from smoking over
five years. The study, however, also included proposed sales and
advertising restrictions in its calculations.
"That means if we act this year -- instead of having a year-long political
debate and doing nothing -- if we act this year, by the year 2003 we can
stop almost 3 million young people from smoking and save almost 1 million
lives as a result. We ought to save those lives and you should demand that
we save those lives," Clinton told the scientists.
Last summer, the industry and state attorneys general reached an agreement
that calls for cigarette makers to remit $368.5 billion over 25 years to
state and federal governments.
It would give immunity from future punitive liability to cigarette makers
and set advertising and marketing restrictions. The settlement does not
specifically call for tax increases.
Clinton partially endorsed the settlement but called for further steps such
as increasing per pack taxes by $1.50 over 10 years, regulation by the Food
and Drug Administration, an end to marketing aimed at children and help for
tobacco farmers who would be harmed by a decrease in usage.
The president endorsed legislation offered this week by Sen. Kent Conrad,
D-N.D., whose measure would generate $500 billion over 25 years by hiking
taxes, eliminate the industry's protection from lawsuits and include
provisions outlined by Clinton.
Vice President Al Gore joined Conrad as the measure was unveiled this week.
The tobacco industry blasted the Conrad measure as a deal-breaker and
threatened to back out of its settlement agreement.
Sen. Jim Jeffords, R-Vt., chairman of the Senate Labor and Human Resources
committee, offered a measure partially addressing the settlement but not
including taxes. Republican leaders have yet to offer their proposal.
Settlement legislation has been stalled since last summer as neither
political party in Congress, nor the White House, proposed a specific measure.
Aides said the administration will not offer its proposed legislation but
instead will work with the Senate Democratic measure.
Clinton called the Conrad measure "a strong bill that meets all the
objectives I just mentioned." But he added, "I look forward to working with
him and with other members to enact comprehensive and bipartisan legislation."
Elena Kagan, deputy domestic policy adviser, said the administration wants
a comprehensive measure passed this year. "The president does not want
Congress to pass piecemeal legislation," she said.
She also said the administration was willing to negotiate on the immunity
from liability. She said Clinton would prefer a measure without immunity
for the industry but the issue "is not a deal- breaker."
The president later attended a fund-raising dinner for the Democratic
Congressional Campaign Committee. Clinton raised $300,000 for the panel,
which provides support to Democrats running for the House.
He told the crowd Democrats had a good chance of recapturing the House in
the next election.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Clinton, Gingrich Bicker On Drugs ('Associated Press' Notes President
Lays Out New 10-Year Plan To Cut Illegal-Drug Use 50 Percent -
Proposed Budget For Drug Czar's Office $17.1 Billion Next Year,
Up 6.8 Percent - Gingrich Would Prefer Four-Year Civil War
But Doesn't Mention Cost - Plus, URL For 1998 National Drug Control Strategy)
Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 18:42:05 -0500
To: DrugSense News Service
From: Richard Lake
Subject: MN: US: Wire: Clinton, Gingrich Bicker on Drugs
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: KJBLeu@aol.com and Kevin Zeese
Source: Associated Press
Pubdate: Sat, 14 Feb 1998
Author: Donna Abu-Nasr
Editors note: The plan, called the '1998 National Drug Control Strategy' is
online at:
http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/policy/98ndcs/contents.html
CLINTON, GINGRICH BICKER ON DRUGS
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich sparred
over drug policy in separate radio addresses Saturday, the president laying
out plans to reduce illegal drug use by 50 percent in the next decade, the
speaker ridiculing the proposal as a ``hodgepodge of half-steps and half-
truths.''
Gingrich said he will press a resolution in the House urging Clinton and
White House drug policy chief Barry McCaffrey to withdraw the plan, which
he described as ``the definition of failure.''
``In the Civil War it took just four years to save the Union and abolish
slavery,'' Gingrich scoffed.
In his weekly radio address, the president said although the number of
Americans using drugs has fallen by 50 percent since 1979, it should be cut
in half again over the next decade.
But before outlining his proposal, Clinton stressed that the fight against
drugs ``must be waged and won at kitchen tables all across America.''
``Even the world's most thorough anti-drug strategy won't ever do the job
unless all of us pass on the same clear and simple message to our children:
Drugs are wrong, drugs are dangerous, and drugs can kill you,'' Clinton said.
His plan, portions of which already were disclosed by McCaffrey, includes
expanded prevention education, employment of an additional 1,000 Border
Patrol officers and 100 Drug Enforcement Administration agents, completion
of the hiring of 100,000 new community police officers and expanded drug
testing and treatment among prisoners and parolees.
In a follow-up news conference, McCaffrey said the government alone cannot
solve the national drug problem. ``We look forward to working with the
Congress, state and local government and the private sector to forge a
bipartisan and truly national response to the drug problem,'' McCaffrey said.
As he spoke, however, Gingrich, R-Ga., speaking in the GOP's weekly radio
address, accused the president of neglecting the narcotics issue for five
years, and as a consequence allowing drug use among teen-agers to rise by
70 percent over that period.
He said World War II was won four years after the United States joined the
Allied cause, and yet Clinton's new drug-fighting schedule prescribes more
than twice that long.
``This president would have us believe that with all of the resources,
ingenuity, dedication and passion of the American people, we can't even get
halfway to victory in the war on drugs until the year 2007 - nine full
years from now,'' the speaker said. ``That is not success. That is the
definition of failure. ... We cannot accept this administration's proposed
timetable for defeat.''
``I insist that the president and his drug czar (McCaffrey) withdraw their
so-called drug plan and its hodgepodge of half-steps and half-truths and
bring us back a real plan to tackle the drug crisis,'' Gingrich said.
He said both men should follow get-tough policies used by Republican mayors
such as Rudolph Guiliani of New York City.
Gingrich said the Republican-run Congress would pass legislation that
includes:
Helping communities build anti-drug coalitions.
Giving parents anti-drug information.
Providing market incentives so businesses will create drug-free workplaces.
Establishing a national clearinghouse for anti-drug information.
He did not provide specific dollar amounts or other figures.
The administration's drug-fighting plan is to be funded through a $17.1
billion drug-control budget request for next year, a 6.8 percent increase.
About $195 million of the initiative is earmarked for an anti-drug media
campaign aimed at children. An additional $146 million would go for
programs to curb underage smoking, while $50 million would be set aside to
pay for 1,300 counselors at middle schools.
Other proposed spending includes:
$85 million for the prison drug treatment programs.
A $75.4 million increase in the Defense Department's budget for
drug-fighting in the Caribbean, Mexico and South America.
49 million for the National Institutes of Health to expand research on drug
and underage alcohol use.
24.5 million to hire the new Drug Enforcement Administration special
agents, who would target methamphetamine sales and production.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Study Turns Up Little Proof Of Date-Rape Drug ('Associated Press'
Report In 'Orange County Register' Says Study Of 578 Rape Victims
Found Rohypnol In Five - But Alcohol In 40 Percent,
According To Dr. Mahmoud El-Sohly Of University Of Mississippi,
Speaking At American Academy Of Forensic Sciences Conference
In San Francisco)
Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 18:48:41 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)
Subject: MN: US CA: Study Turns Up Little Proof of Date-Rape Drug
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk:John W.Black
Source: Orange County Register
Contact: letters@link.freedom.com
Pubdate: Sat, 14 Feb 1998
Author: Richard Cole, The Associated Press
STUDY TURNS UP LITTLE PROOF OF DATE-RAPE DRUG
Only five urine samples from 578 rape victims give evidence of Rohypnol.
SAN FRANCISCO-Alcohol was by far the most common drug found in a study of
urine samples taken from 578 rape victims who said they had been drugged
before the attack, a forensic scientist said Friday.
In 40 percent of the samples, no drugs were found, while only five samples
showed the presence of the so-called date rape drug Rohypnol, said Dr.
Mahmoud El-Sohly.
"From what we are seeing now, it does not seem that any one drug is
responsible," said El-Sohly, who runs a private lab and teaches
pharmaceutics at the University of Mississippi. He presented his study
Friday at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.
Only five samples showed Rohypnol, and four of those also showed the
presence of other drugs, including alcohol, cocaine and opiates, El-Sohly
said.
Hoffman-LaRoche Inc., the maker of Rohypnol, nicknamed "roodies" on the
street, paid for the testing, ElSohly said. The samples were provided by
police departments, rape crisis centers and emergency rooms.
Alcohol was present in 208 cases (36 percent), tranquilizers in 49 (8
percent) and cocaine in 40 (7 percent). In 234 cases, ElSohly found no
trace of any drugs.
In 1996, congressional hearings led to a federal law outlawing Rohypnol,
scientifically called flunitrazepam, and mandating an additional 20-year
sentence for anyone caught using it to commit rape.
ElSohly's findings came as no surprise to people working in rape crisis
centers, said Catherine Dougherty, a sexual-assault nurse examiner in
Monmouth County, N.J.
"A lot of my colleagues who suspected the use of date-rape drugs have sent
our samples, and I don't know any who have gotten positive hits," she said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Likeliest Date-Rape Drug Used Is Alcohol, According To Study
('Houston Chronicle' Version Of 'Associated Press' Story, Somewhat Different)
Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 20:27:00 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar
Subject: MN: US CA: Likeliest Date-Rape 'drug' Used Is Alcohol, According To
Study
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Art Smart
Pubdate: Sat, 14 Feb 1998
Source: Houston Chronicle
Contact: viewpoints@chron.com
Website: http://www.chron.com/
Contact: viewpoints@chron.com
LIKELIEST DATE-RAPE 'DRUG' USED IS ALCOHOL, ACCORDING TO STUDY
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Alcohol was by far the most common drug found in a
study of urine samples taken from 578 rape victims who said they had been
drugged before the attack, a forensic scientist said Friday.
In 40 percent of the samples, no drugs were found, while only
five samples showed the presence of the so-called date rape drug Rohypnol,
said Dr. Mahmoud ElSohly.
"From what we are seeing now, it does not seem that any one drug is
responsible" said ElSohly, who runs a large private lab and teaches
pharmaceutics at the University of Mississippi.
ElSohly presented his study Friday at the annual meeting of the American
Academy of Forensic Sciences.
Only five samples (less than .01 percent) showed the presence of Rohypnol,
and four of those also showed the presence of other drugs, including
alcohol, cocaine and opiates, ElSohly said.
Hoffman-LaRoche, the maker of Rohypnol, nicknamed "roofies" on the street,
paid for the testing, ElSohly said. The drug is used legally in many
countries as a sleep aid.
The samples were provided by police departments, rape crisis centers and
emergency rooms, he said.
Alcohol was present in 208 cases (36 percent), marijuana in 93 (17
percent), tranquilizers in 49 (8 percent) and cocaine in 40 (7 percent).
In 234 cases, ElSohly found no trace of any drugs.
In 1996 a federal law outlawed Rohypnol and mandated an additional 20-year
sentence for anyone caught using the drug to commit rape.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Anti-Drug Mexican Journalist Gunned Down ('Dallas Morning News'
Says Mexico City's 'Reforma' Newspaper Quoted Witnesses
Saying Eight Police Agents Surrounded Luis Mario Garcia On Thursday Night
And Roughed Him Up Before One Of Them Drew A Gun And Killed Him)
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 09:51:49 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)
Subject: MN: Mexico: Anti-Drug Mexican Journalist Gunned Down
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Anti-Prohibition Lg
Source: Dallas Morning News
Contact: letterstoeditor@dallasnews.com
Website: http://www.dallasnews.com
Pubdate: Sat, 14 Feb 1998
Author: Tracey Eaton
ANTI-DRUG MEXICAN JOURNALIST GUNNED DOWN
MEXICO CITY - Crusading journalist Luis Mario Garcia spent most days and
many nights digging into the perilous underworld of drug lords and corrupt
police. And that almost certainly got him killed, his colleagues say.
An unknown assailant stuck a gun in Mr. Garcia's face late Thursday night
and fired five times, the writer's boss said Friday. "WHO DID IT?" read the
banner headline in Friday's la tarde newspaper. "He was one of my best
reporters," publisher Miguel Rocha Valencia said. "He didn't just type up
what was on press releases. He went into the streets and found news."
Dozens of Mexican reporters have been attacked or killed in recent years.
Mr. Garcia, 42, married with six children, was the first to be killed in
1998.
Mr. Garcia was reportedly shot shortly after a late meeting with some of
his federal police sources. Colleagues who rushed to the scene said it
appeared he had five bullet wounds in the face and three or four in the
torso.
Mexico City's Reforma newspaper reported Friday that witnesses said eight
police agents surrounded Mr. Garcia on Thursday night and roughed him up
before one of them drew a gun and killed the journalist.
Mexican authorities had no comment on the case Friday, and Mr. Rocha said
he's not sure which version of the story to believe. Some witnesses say a
sole assassin killed Mr. Garcia. Others put the number at four or more, Mr.
Rocha said.
"It's not our job to accuse anyone. Let the authorities investigate," he said.
As of late Friday afternoon, no investigators had bothered to call la tarde
or stop by and look through the newspaper's archives, Mr. Rocha said.
"Our files are open," he said. "But no one has called." The newspaper,
whose name means "afternoon" in Spanish, has a circulation of about 4,500.
One of about 20 in Mexico City, la tarde was founded March 23, 1994, the
same day that ruling party presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio was
gunned down in Tijuana.
Its former publisher, Simon Yamin Sesin, also headed a newspaper called
Ocho Columnas, which means "eight columns" in Toluca, a city about 45 miles
west of Mexico City. Mr. Yamin was slain in May in a still-unresolved case.
Two suspects have been identified but not arrested, Mr. Rocha said.
Mr. Garcia had been with the newspaper for less than two years. One of his
most explosive stories, published in December, accused Mexico City's then
newly appointed judicial police chief, Jesus Carrola Gutierrez, of being
paid off by Tijuana's notorious Arellano Felix drug gang. Mr. Carrola
denied any drug ties but resigned under fire shortly afterward.
Another report by Mr. Garcia said the Arellano Felix gang had begun to
infiltrate the upper reaches of law enforcement agencies in Mexico City,
well out of its traditional Pacific Coast territory. His newspaper
announced that story with a huge headline on Page 1: "Here Come the
Arellano Felixes!"
Still another story said that Mexican authorities were selling prosecutors'
jobs to the highest bidders and that some federal attorney general's
officials had received illegal gifts: baskets packed with fruit and wads of
cash.
After such stories appeared, Mr. Rocha said Mr. Garcia received threats.
But he was used to that, having endured not only intimidation but also an
assassination attempt last year. Gunmen chased him down and fired at his
car as he and one of his sons were driving along a highway in northern
Sonora state.
One bullet struck the writer in the buttocks. Another hit his son in the
head. Their car crashed and the assailants left, apparently thinking their
target was dead. But the two survived, and Mr. Garcia immediately went back
to writing about drug trafficking and police corruption.
On Tuesday, Mr. Rocha said, an unidentified police commander with a foreign
last name and an Army captain met with Mr. Garcia for four hours, insisting
that he tell them where he was getting his information.
He reportedly told them, "From your own personnel" and refused to say
anything else about his sources.
"His sources were very confidential," Mr. Rocha said. "When he'd write a
story, I'd ask, 'Can you back this up?' and he'd say, 'Yes, this is true
for this reason and that reason.' "
Even in death, Mr. Garcia managed to get in a final word. In his last story
published Friday, he said he had discovered a plaza in Mexico City where
hundreds of federal agents gather each day, doing absolutely nothing as
taxpayers foot the bill for their salaries and drug traffickers run free.
Motorists, he wrote, are amazed to see "people armed with automatic pistols
playing as if it were recess time for some public school."
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Drug Lord Slain In Inside Job, Officials Allege ('Los Angeles Times'
Quotes Top Mexican Anti-Drug Prosecutor Mariano Herran Salvatti
Saying Cocaine Cartel Of Amado Carrillo Fuentes Ordered Him Killed In July
Because He Had Become A Liability - Story Also Alleges Three Plastic Surgeons
Who Killed Fuentes Were Then Tortured To Death By Fuentes' Family
In Attempt To Discover Mastermind)
Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 15:06:53 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)
Subject: MN: Mexico: Drug Lord Slain in Inside Job, Officials Allege
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Bartman
Source: Los Angeles Times
Contact: letters@latimes.com
Website: http://www.latimes.com
Pubdate: Sat, 14 Feb 1998
Editor's note: This article also appeared as "New Light On Killing of Drug
Lord" in the San Fransisco Chronicle and "Druglord Apparantly Was Killed By
His Own People" in the Orange County Register on Sat, 14 Feb 1998
DRUG LORD SLAIN IN INSIDE JOB, OFFICIALS ALLEGE
Amado Carrillo Fuentes' cartel ordered him killed in July because he had
become a liability, investigators say.
MEXICO CITY (AP) --The death of Mexico's No. 1 cocaine trafficker, slain by
his own plastic surgeons, was ordered by his own cartel because he had
become a liability to a thriving business, investigators allege.
Casting new light on the slaying, Mexico's top drug fighter said in an
interview this week that investigators now believe that Amado Carrillo
Fuentes was killed because the manhunt for him hurt the cartel's business.
Investigators also now theorize that the three doctors responsible for
Carrillo's death were tortured to death by his relatives in an attempt to
determine the mastermind behind the drug lord's slaying, top Mexican
anti-drug prosecutor Mariano Herran Salvatti said.
"We believe that it was an internal deal. Amado Carrillo wasn't killed by
outsiders but by people within his own organization," Herran Salvatti said.
"He was becoming uncomfortable for the organization."
The manhunt for the head of the Juarez cartel "was at such a level it put
in danger" drug trafficking deals, Herran Salvatti said.
Known as the "Lord of the Skies" for his use of huge passenger jets to
bring tons of cocaine to Mexico from Colombia, Carrillo was the country's
No. 1 cocaine trafficker at the time of his death.
After Carrillo's death July 4 following plastic surgery to change his
appearance, attention focused on other drug lords battling to move into his
old territory.
Several theories emerged in the media as to who was responsible, including
the possibility that Carrillo was killed by followers of the Tijuana-based
Arellano Felix brothers, who lead Mexico's most violent drug gang.
Carrillo successfully eluded authorities for years. Once, local police
officers allegedly in his pay helped him flee his planned arrest by federal
agents at his sister's wedding.
But his boldness led to his death.
"Amado Carrillo began to lose his anonymity when he began to have more
girlfriends," Herran Salvatti said. "He went to restaurants a lot more, and
people began taking photographs of him."
Authorities believe that pressure led him to a Mexico City clinic for
plastic surgery to change his looks. But doctors at the clinic injected a
dose of the sleeping drug Dormicum that "they must have known would kill
him," Herran Salvatti said at a news conference in November.
Investigators allege that Carrillo's relatives, led by his brother Vicente,
tortured the doctors. The doctors' bodies were found four months after
Carrillo's death, stuffed into oil drums on a seldom-traveled highway in
the southern state of Guerrero.
"The most accepted version is that the family killed them in revenge,"
Herran Salvatti said. "And that they may have been trying to investigate
themselves as to where the order [to kill Carrillo] had come from.
"The degree of torture was such . . . that they were trying to get
something out of them," Herran Salvatti said.
Four days after the doctors' bodies were found, prosecutors announced that
two of the three had faced formal charges for intentionally killing
Carrillo. The third doctor, though not charged, participated in the
surgery.
Sergio Aguilar, the drug lord's lawyer, was reported missing soon after the
doctors' bodies were discovered. "I think he disappeared on his own
initiative," Herran Salvatti said, "after he saw what happened to the
doctors."
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Rebagliati Disgraces Medal ('Ottawa Sun' Columnist
Who's Lived In His Ivory Tower Too Long Insists Canadian Snowboarder
Who Won Olympic Gold Medal And Tested Positive For Cannabis Broke The Rules)
From: creator@islandnet.com (Matt Elrod)
To: mattalk@listserv.islandnet.com
Subject: Canada: Rebagliati disgraces medal
Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 10:22:49 -0800
Lines: 90
Newshawk: creator@mapinc.org
Source: Ottawa Sun
Contact: editor@sunpub.com
Pubdate: February 14, 1998
Author: EARL McRAE, Ottawa Sun
Section: McRae's World
REBAGLIATI DISGRACES MEDAL
The tears and sympathy for Ross Rebagliati, jerk, are enough to make me
puke.
Marijuana isn't on the IOC's list of banned substances and therefore it
had no right to take away his gold medal?
Horse excrement!
Marijuana is a mind-altering drug and it's illegal in Japan and it's
illegal in Canada and it's illegal for good reason and the amount of
illegal marijuana in the system of Ross Rebagliati exceeded the minimum
level imposed by the internationally governing body of his own sport,
snowboarding, beyond which level sanctions can be applied, and the IOC
applied them; it took away his medal, and good for the IOC, and shame on
the porridge-brained Canadian Olympic Association for appealing it, and on
the mentally-disenfranchised Court of Arbitration for reversing the IOC's
decision.
Who gives a damn whether marijuana enhances, diminishes, or plays ring
around the rosy with an athlete's performance?
The point is, it's illegal in the country of the athlete who tested
positive, it's illegal in the country showcasing this year's winter Games,
the IOC has every bloody right to set its own terms of admissibility,
deniability, and consequences of compliance and non-compliance on the
absolutely legitimate grounds of the ideal it seeks and what the Olympics
are supposed to be all about at the competitive level: Purity of mind,
body, and soul; purity of image; the athlete as a role model of discipline,
smart judgment, and clean living.
That it isn't always is not for lack of IOC effort, and anyone who would
seriously object to such noble goals, including dealing with such "social"
drugs as marijuana, is a loser.
The IOC had no right to pick on Ross Rebagliati because marijuana isn't
officially on the IOC's list of banned "performance-enhancing" substances?
I see.
Well, the Ottawa Sun does not have rape, murder, robbery, assault, fraud,
drug addiction, or even serial plagiarism on its list of banned experiences
when hiring; the reason being the Ottawa Sun does not have such a list,
period.
But I do tend to believe the Ottawa Sun, out of concern for propriety and
image, would, oh, perhaps think twice about hiring people with such
experiences; and most certainly have the arbitrary right to fire anyone who
messed up along aforementioned lines -- even if the violation did not
affect the deliverance of the award-winning story -- without the firing
being over-turned by weeping hearts.
Marijuana should be de-criminalized because it's relatively harmless?
And, after all, cigarette smoking is legal? Amazing, isn't it, that many of
the same zealots screaming for the ban of cigarettes are the ones braying
for legalization of marijuana.
Mother to eight-year-old daughter: "Daddy can't drive you to Brownies
tonight, sweetheart, he's drunk and drunk driving is illegal. But
marijuana's okay -- just like cigarettes and driving is okay -- and when
mommy gets just a little more stoned out of her head on this joint, I'll
drive you to Brownies. I love you."
Excuse me? What's that you said? Responsibility? Accountability?
Maturity? Dire consequences for bad actions? Don't be naive. No one gets
punished anymore.
Ross Rebagliati swears up and down he didn't smoke pot, which is illegal
under the law of the land, just inhaled the smoke of the pot that's illegal
under the law of the land, and which was being smoked by his friends whom
he knew were breaking the law of the land, but did they care and did
Rebagliati care? Nope. Screw the law of the land. As for me, I don't
believe Rebagliati's "second-hand" smoke defence. I'm with those medical
doctors, greater drug experts than Rebagliati, who also don't.
The Olympic Gold Medal has a far longer and more honorable history than
one Ross Rebagliati, shameless yobbo in a joke "sport," and Ross Rebagliati
-- not a lawbreaker, he says, but a knowing consort of lawbreakers --
should have his medal stripped to save the medal, not him, from the
humiliation of hanging around his undeserving neck.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Olympic Winning Boxer Smoked Pot (List Subscriber Notes Canadian Snowboarder
Who Just Won Gold Medal, Then Tested Positive For Cannabis Metabolites,
Isn't First Great Green Hope - 1992 'Sports Illustrated' Article Documents Case
Of US Boxer Eric Griffin, Disqualified From 1988 Team Over Positive Test)
Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 14:34:33 -0800 (PST)
From: bc616@scn.org (Darral Good)
To: hemp-talk@hemp.net
Subject: HT: Olympic WINNING boxer smoked pot
Reply-To: bc616@scn.org
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net
Full content for this article includes illustration and photograph.
Source: Sports Illustrated, July 22, 1992 v77 n3 p146(3).
Title: Out front again. (U.S. boxer Eric Griffin; 1992 Summer Olympics)
Author: William Nack
Abstract: Eric Griffin is favored to win the gold medal in 106-pound boxing
at the 1992 Summer Olympics. Griffin was suspended from the 1988 Olympic
trials after testing positive for marijuana. He has since won the world
championship in the 106-pound class every year from 1989 to 1992.
Subjects: Olympics - 1992
Boxers (Sports) - Conduct of life
People: Griffin, Eric - Conduct of life
Electronic Collection: A12442591 RN: A12442591
Full Text COPYRIGHT Time Inc. 1992
There were days in late 1988 when Eric Griffin feared he was losing his
marbles. "My mind was going crazy," says the 24-year-old light flyweight
boxer. "My life had fallen apart. I had lost everything, and I just went
nuts."
Tossed and turned by insomnia, he would wake up some mornings at four o'clock,
only a few hours after returning from his job as a dishwasher, pull on his
sweats and run seven miles along the darkened streets of south Houston. Back
home he would bolt awake again after an hour's nap and jostle his older
brother, Tony, to work out with him. "My brother would hold up his hands and
spar with me," Griffin says. "We didn't have any pads. And sometimes I would
go crazy with him -- start to wrestle and throw him on the ground. He'd say
to me, `I don't care how much you hit me or slap me. I'm going to get you
back like you want to be. We're going to get it off your mind.' "
There were nights when Griffin would hang his heavy bag from a tree not far
from his apartment and bathe the ground around it in a spotlight. "I would run
the spotlight on a generator with a battery and train right under that tree,"
he says. "I would cry when I trained. I would try to bust the bag, hitting it
five or six rounds, and then I would kick the bag, trying to bust it, and push
it and throw it. I was just berserk."
It was thus he tried to chase the demons chasing him. Shortly after the
Olympic trials in July 1988 Griffin, then the second-ranked American in the
106-pound class, was training in Las Vegas for a match in the Box-off against
top-ranked Michael Carbajal for the right to represent the U.S. in that class
in Seoul. When U.S. boxing officials said they wanted to see him, Griffin
worried that something might have happened to a loved one back home -- to a
member of his family or to Robert Jordan, the Houston computer executive who
had become more like a father to him than any man he had ever known.
"Eric, you have a problem," Colonel Don Hull, president of the USA Amateur
Boxing Federation, told him.
"What's the problem?" the young man asked.
"In the drug test taken at the trials, you came up positive for marijuana. We
are suspending you from the Box-off."
The suspension was for six months. Not only had Griffin blown the chance for
which he had been training the last four years, but within the week he was out
of Jordan's life and on his own, without the man to watch over him, with just
the spotlight in the tree to show the way. "I thought things would never come
back like they had been," says Griffin. "I thought I would never come back."
Almost four years later, to be sure, the man is back. Griffin's suspension
was lifted in January 1989, and he has since won four consecutive world
championships at 106 pounds -- from '89 through '92. Some observers judge him
to be the finest amateur boxer in the world, a methodical, accurate puncher
whose style is perfectly suited to the new international rules in which
punches are counted by computer.
"I'm going to win the Olympics," Griffin says. "As an amateur the only thing
left for me is the gold. I always wanted to be something. And now I am."
Griffin was raised mostly by his maternal grandmother, Rena Williams, a cook
in Broussard, La., where he was taught to box by a local tough, Tim (Brown
Sugar) Rabon. "Timmy taught me how to stick and move," says Griffin. "He
taught me how to fight on defense. Boxing, you take your time, learn the
skills, and you can get someplace. It keeps you sacrifighting."
Griffin sacrifought his way right out of Broussard. In 1982, at 14, he won
the 80-pound title at the Junior Olympics in Colorado Springs, and a year
later at the Junior Olympics in St. Paul, Minn., he won the 85-pound
championship. "Boxing opened the world to me," he says. "I was flying all over
the place. I'd get home, and I was ready to go again two or three days
later."
When he was 16 Griffin accompanied another Broussard-area fighter, heavyweight
Mike Williams, to Houston, four hours away. At 85 pounds, Griffin was clearly
too small to have a future as an amateur. Or a pro. "You want to make any
money, you're gonna have to put some weight on," Williams told him, and began
feeding the boy as much as Griffin could eat. "Corn bread and milk, rice and
beans, meat and gravy," Griffin says. "I was 106 pounds in six months. I
stopped boxing and just built myself up. Mike had me doing 400 push-ups every
day. And sit-ups, too, and he had me running three miles a day. It was the
first time I was on a program."
For two years Griffin scratched by to pay his bills, bagging groceries at a
supermarket, doing odd jobs. "It was hard," he says. "I was alone. I wanted
to make the Olympics, and every day in my apartment I worried about it."
Griffin had never known his natural father, and he had never had a steady,
sheltering male influence in his life until he met Jordan in late 1986. A
onetime amateur out of Jasper, Tenn., Jordan was supporting a stable of
fighters in a Houston gym. One of them was Williams, who urged Griffin to
drop by. Recalls Jordan, "When Eric came into the gym, he was 5 ft. 3 in.,
106 pounds, and I said, `What's this? He can't be a fighter!' Then he started
to work, and everyone stopped to watch. He was just awesome, throwing so many
punches and combinations." What Jordan liked best as he watched Griffin train
over the next few weeks was how hard he worked. "He was just a little gym
rat," says Jordan. "We started pointing for the '88 Olympic trials."
Griffin won the National Golden Gloves title in 1987, and in the months they
spent together, Jordan and the boxer grew close, sharing a vision of the
future in Seoul. It all came apart, of course, when Hull summoned Griffin in
Vegas. Jordan was flabbergasted on hearing the news. "This cannot be true,"
he said.
But it was. Two weeks before the trials Griffin had joined some Houston
friends in smoking a marijuana cigarette, thinking he would never get caught.
He acknowledges that he had begun smoking dope a year before. "It wasn't like
every day," he says. "I'd go out to a party and do it." By the time of the
trials, Griffin says, "I thought it would be out of my system."
At first Griffin protested his innocence to Jordan, and when the boxer twice
tested clean after returning to Houston, the coach threatened to sue the
boxing federation. When he heard that, Griffin decided to confess. "I never
had a father that took care of me the way Bob did," he says. "I wanted to be
honest with him. I didn't want to lie to him. I just couldn't do it.
Something told me not to do it." So Griffin said, "Bob, I did it."
Jordan was a child of the 1950s -- "If you smoked pot when I was growing up,
you were a dope fiend," he says. "Get away from me," he told Griffin. "I don't
want anything more to do with you. Go back to Louisiana and do whatever it is
that 106-pound people do down there for a living. I quit!"
Soon after, Griffin found himself beating on his brother and his heavy bag and
training with manic intensity. He had several offers to turn pro -- "One guy
offered me $75,000 cash up front," he says -- but he dismissed them all. "I
couldn't do it," he says. "The Olympics in '92 was still a dream. I wanted to
get back with Bob, just like it used to be. That's how desperate I was."
The two men began talking, and they finally reconciled late in 1988. The
boxer moved into Jordan's Houston home in early '89. "You can't box and hang
around these same people," Jordan told him. "And you've got to go to church
with me." Griffin also agreed to be tested periodically for drugs.
Jordan moved back to Jasper (pop. 2,670) in late 1989, and Griffin followed a
year later. He trained for a spell in a gym above a hardware store and barber
shop in South Pittsburg, Tenn. "They were complaining that Eric was knocking
their ceiling tiles out and making too much noise," the coach says. Those
were not the only complaints they were hearing. Living in Sequatchie, a burg
outside of Jasper, they began getting late-night phone calls. "No niggers
allowed in Sequatchie," the voices would say. "We're gonna burn you down."
After one caller threatened to run the boxer down while he was doing roadwork,
Jordan called the FBI in Chattanooga and asked for help. An agent started
flashing his badge and making inquiries from house to house. "We never heard
another peep," Jordan said.
Griffin is now living with his girlfriend, Kathy Benoit, and their
21-month-old son, Exavnear, and the man has become a celebrity in Jasper. He
has been training lately out of a converted drugstore, and townsfolk regularly
come by to watch him in his twice-daily toilings with the bags and ropes,
peering through the plate-glass windows and gathering on the benches inside.
He signs autographs and poses for pictures.
"It turned out the way it should have," he says. "Telling the truth to Bob was
the most important thing I ever did in my life. He helped me put my things
back together. Things are like I never used to have them. And I'm talking to
kids about staying off drugs. I've got my life back."
CAPTION: As the Olympics neared, Griffin under glass was a dish the fans in
Jasper savored.
CAPTION: Their rift at an end, Jordan (standing) and Griffin wrapped up a spot
on the team at the Box-off.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Clubs Grow Like Weeds ('Toronto Sun' Says Eight Dispensaries
For Medical Marijuana Are Or Soon Will Be Serving Patients In Toronto,
Southern Ontario)
Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 16:07:45 -0800
To: mattalk@listserv.islandnet.com
From: Chris Clay
Subject: CANADA: Clubs grow like weeds
Cc: editor@mapinc.org
SOURCE: Toronto Sun
DATE: February 14, 1998
AUTHOR: Dave Rider, the Toronto Sun
WEBSITE: http://www.canoe.ca/TorontoSun/home.html
CONTACT: editor@sunpub.com
CLUBS GROW LIKE WEEDS
A Toronto "marijuana club" is openly selling pot to
medicinal users, as will seven similar clubs about to sprout up
across southern Ontario.
In a bold move they know will put them on a "collision
course" with the law and possible life sentences for
trafficking, pot activists held a press conference last night to
announce their grand opening.
"We are not a band of back-alley drug dealers looking to
make it big," said Neev Taiero, who's involved with the
Toronto club, Medical Marijuana Resource Centre.
"MMRC exists because we believe that people are suffering
unnecessarily."
The 50-member club has worked in the shadows for almost
two years but will be openly affiliated with similar non-profit
clubs starting in west Toronto, Mississauga, Oakville,
London, Guelph, Peterboro and Kitchener, said operator
Warren Hitzig.
Members will be restricted to those with doctors' letters
confirming they have cancer, AIDS/HIV, muscular
dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, paraplegia/quadriplegia,
epilepsy and intractable pain including arthritis.
But those with letters proving they have any other diseases
alleviated by pot intake, as well as anyone over 65, can also
get the free memberships, Hitzig said.
Each location will keep less than 30 grams of pot on hand
and will deliver orders to members, charging "much less" than
the street value of $90 for seven grams in Toronto and $50
for the same amount in London.
Osgoode Hall law professor Alan Young said the clubs fill
the gap between the user and a recent Ontario court ruling --
now under appeal -- that the government can't deny
medicinal marijuana to Toronto epileptic Terry Parker.
"(But) any way you slice or dice it this is probably an illegal
activity ... an act of civil disobedience," said Young.
The People With AIDS Foundation of Toronto approves of
the clubs, saying appetite-inducing pot can mean the
difference between "normal" life and skeletal death.
The central-east Toronto club has no permanent address,
while the clubs in west Toronto, Mississauga and Oakville
will operate out of The Hidden Jungle hemp stores.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Medical Pot Users To Form Buyer Network ('Toronto Star' Version Also Notes
Activists Face Life In Prison For Trafficking)
Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 19:00:00 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)
Subject: MN: Canada: Medical Pot Users to Form Buyer Network
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Neev (ntapiero@acs.ryerson.ca)
Source: Toronto Star
Contact: lettertoed@thestar.com
Website: http://www.thestar.com/
Pubdate: Sat, 14 Feb 1998
Author: Dale Anne Freed
MEDICAL POT USERS TO FORM BUYER NETWORK
Were not a bunch of back-alley drug-dealers
I smoke five or six joints a day. If I don't smoke for eight days, then my
mind is denser. Id shake a lot -Lynn Harichy, 36 year-old, buys marijuana
to reduce the pain, nausea, and paralyzing effects of Multiple Sclerosis.
They smoke marijuana and they proudly inhale.
They say they don't do it for pleasure but to reduce pain.
But those in group of about 50 people who met at 519 Church Street
community center last night must produce a letter from the letter from
their doctor before they can get marijuana through the non-profit Medical
Marijuana Buyers Clubs of Ontario, said Neev Tapiero, who represents a
Toronto Buyers Club.
The club opened a location in Toronto more than 18 months ago; another is
scheduled to open soon. Mississauga, Oakville, and Etobicoke are accepting
applications. The London centre is expected to open in late March,
Peterborough, and Kitchener in April, and Guelph in May.
Only one other marijuana medical buyers club exists in Canada, said Alan
Young, a lawyer for the group. The Compassion Club is located in
Vancouver.
The group cautions that it sells to medical users only: We're not a bunch
of back-alley drug dealers, Tapiero said.
Those receiving the illegal drug must claim to have conditions ranging from
AIDS/HIV to muscular dystrophy, glaucoma, epilepsy, paraplegia or
quadriplegia.
Lawyer Alan Young told those gathered that selling pot was not something to
be taken lightly. Those who sell cannabis potentially face life
imprisonment for trafficking, he said.
Federal drug laws make it illegal to possess cannabis or its derivatives
which include marijuana, resin, and hashish.
The group promises to sell marijuana that is pure and free of mould at
prices below street value. Members say they plan to keep about 30 grams on
hand in their buyers locations.
Street value for marijuana is about $90 for 7 grams, the group said.
Lynn Harichy, who with her husband Mike operates a buyers club in London,
says the paralyzing effects of multiple sclerosis are greatly reduced when
she smokes marijuana.
I smoke five or six joints a day, she said. if I dont smoke for eight
days, then my mind is denser. Id shake a lot. She noted marijuana reduces
her pain and nausea, too.
Her husband Mike thinks it is a lot safer for people who need the drug for
medicinal purposes to buy it from a recognized group. Otherwise yourself
in Jeopardy, said Mike who has bought his wife marijuana from biker gangs.
AIDS activist Jim Wakeford, 53, was noticeably absent from last night's
meeting.
Wakeford wishes the medical marijuana clubs well, but is skeptical about
their hopes for success: I think their hearts are in the right place.
Wakeford was part of such a group called CALM last winter, started by
Tapiero. But after 4.5 months, the club closed - in part because of
peoples fear of entrapment, Wakeford said.
At this point Wakeford smokes half a joint to a joint a day to ease nausea
from a potent cocktail of 40 AIDS pills he must swallow each day.
The former executive director of the Casey House Foundation is going to
court to change the law so people with HIV and AIDS can use marijuana.
If my case can help others I would be the happiest man in Canada.
Wakefords case is to open in Ontario Court, general division, May 4.
In December, a provincial court gave epiliptic Torontonian Terry Parker the
right to smoke marijuana to ease his symptoms - a ruling has been appealed
to a higher court.
Wakeford hope to raise $15,000 to bring medical experts from abroad to
testify to the medical benefits of marijuana for those with AIDS. (Those
who want to help can reach him at 540 Church Street, #311, Toronto, Ontario
M4Y 2E1.)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Marijuana Buyers Clubs Launched ('Ottawa Citizen' Says
Six Civilly Disobedient Outlets Are Planned For Ontario In Aftermath
Of Ontario Court's Ruling Giving Toronto Man With Epilepsy
Constitutional Right To Grow And Smoke Marijuana)
From: creator@islandnet.com (Matt Elrod)
To: mattalk@listserv.islandnet.com
Subject: Canada: Marijuana 'buyers clubs' launched
Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 09:38:55 -0800
Lines: 88
Newshawk: creator@mapinc.org
Source: Ottawa Citizen
Contact: letters@thecitizen.southam.ca
Pubdate: Saturday 14 February 1998
Author: Randy Boswell, The Ottawa Citizen
Marijuana 'buyers clubs' launched
Six Ontario outlets planned for users with medical need
The activist group pushing to have marijuana declared legal for
medical use has announced the launch of its first six "buyers' clubs"
in Ontario.
At a meeting last night in Toronto, the group stopped short of
identifying store-front locations selling cannabis. But potential
marijuana purchasers in the six cities where clubs have been formed
are being advised to simply visit their nearest hemp store -- with a
doctor's note -- to get further directions for obtaining the drug.
"We're not going to be hiding," said organizer Peter Young, a Toronto
hemp store owner who announced the opening of buyers' clubs in
Toronto, Etobicoke, Mississauga, London, Kitchener and Peterborough.
He said the marijuana will not be sold for profit and will be
available at locations that are "wheelchair accessible" and "in
commercial areas, not private residences." He added that any police
officer posing as a patient could "easily" track down the sales venue,
but said that "if they're going to bust us, fine -- but the next day
we'll be open again."
Mr. Young said "we hear rumours" about a club being set to launch soon
in Ottawa, but had no further details.
The buyers' clubs are being organized as part of a broadening movement
to give AIDS patients and others access to the pain relief offered by
marijuana.
In a letter sent to the federal health and justice ministers last
month, the activists had asked the government to exempt the buyers'
clubs from the law. The group gave the government until Feb. 12 to
respond.
But Mr. Young says that because the group has not heard from the
ministers, the club openings were announced as planned to keep the
pressure on politicians to confront the issue of medical marijuana.
A spokesman for Justice Minister Anne McLellan has said that the
exemptions would not likely be granted "before public policy changes
take place," which could "take some time."
Law enforcers have said they don't intend to ignore the buyers' clubs
or vigourously pursue arrests.
Individuals connected with the buyers club risk convictions, fines and
possibly jail time for trafficking cannabis.
But the group behind the buyers' clubs is pointing to the growing
number of public appeals, statements from politicians and recent court
rulings that suggest society is ready to permit the use of marijuana
to relieve suffering among those seriously ill.
"We are dealing with life-threatening illnesses and enormous
suffering, and I do not think it is fair to perpetuate this suffering
simply because the medical profession and the pharmaceutical industry
have demonstrated indifference to this issue," Osgoode Hall law
professor Alan Young has written to the federal government on behalf
of the buyers' club organizers.
A recent Ontario court ruling gave Terry Parker, a Toronto man with
epilepsy, the constitutional right to grow and smoke marijuana. But
the ruling was seen as a specific exemption for Mr. Parker, rather
than a precedent applying to anyone, and the government is appealing
the decision.
An Ottawa physician, Dr. Don Kilby, has applied to Health Canada for
permission to supply Jean Charles Pariseau, of Vanier, with marijuana
to help relieve some of his AIDS symptoms. Dr. Kilby has also voiced
support for buyers' clubs.
Mike Foster, the owner of Ottawa hemp store Crosstown Traffic, has
said he supports the group and would consider organizing a local club.
Another Ottawa resident, Ron Whalen, has said he has been informally
supplying people with medical marijuana for the past year, although he
is not affiliated with the Toronto-based group.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Pot Club To Open Here - Lynn Harichy And Her Husband Will Handle
The London Outlet ('London Free Press' Says Medical Marijuana Buyers
Clubs Of Ontario Will Open A Medical Cannabis Dispensary In London
By Late March)
From: creator@islandnet.com (Matt Elrod)
To: mattalk@listserv.islandnet.com
Subject: Canada: Pot `club' to open here
Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 09:33:12 -0800
Lines: 74
Newshawk: creator@mapinc.org
Source: London Free Press
Contact: editor@lfpress.com
Pubdate: February 14, 1998
Author: Dave Rider, Sun Media Newspapers
POT 'CLUB' TO OPEN HERE
LYNN HARICHY AND HER HUSBAND WILL HANDLE THE LONDON OUTLET
TORONTO -- "Marijuana clubs" in London and Toronto -- as well as six
similar outlets across Southern Ontario -- plan to openly sell pot to
medicinal users.
In a bold move they know will put them on a "collision course" with the
law and possible life sentences for trafficking, pot activists held a news
conference Friday to announce their grand opening.
"We are not a band of back-alley drug dealers looking to make it big,"
said Neev Taiero, involved with the Toronto club, Medical Marijuana
Resource Centre (MMRC).
"MMRC exists because we believe that people are suffering unnecessarily."
The 50-member club has worked in the shadows for almost two years but will
be openly affiliated with similar non-profit clubs starting up in London,
west Toronto, Mississauga, Oakville, Guelph, Peterborough and Kitchener,
said operator Warren Hitzig.
Members will be restricted to those with doctors' letters confirming they
have cancer, AIDS/HIV, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis,
paraplegia/quadriplegia, epilepsy, glaucoma and intractable pain, including
arthritis.
But those with letters proving they have any other diseases alleviated by
pot intake, as well as anyone over 65, can also get the free memberships,
Hitzig said.
Each location will keep less than 30 grams of pot on hand and will deliver
orders to members, charging "much less" than the street value of about $90
for seven grams in Toronto and as little as $50 for the same in London.
Osgoode Hall law professor Alan Young said the clubs fill the gap between
the user and a recent Ontario court ruling -- now under appeal -- that the
government can't deny medicinal marijuana to Toronto epileptic Terry Parker.
"(But) any way you slice or dice it this is probably an illegal activity .
. . an act of civil disobedience," said Young, who has received no response
to his letter to the federal officials asking them to negotiate with the
clubs.
The London location will be owned by Lynn Harichy, 36, a multiple sclerosis
sufferer whom Young will defend in April on charges of pot possession, and
operated by her husband Mike.
London police Friday showed no sign they'd break with past practice in
dealing with the new outlets, if established in London.
"We're dealing with people who have their own agenda, which is to legalize
the use of marijuana," London police Sgt. John O'Flaherty said Friday.
"They've just jumped on the medical bandwagon to further their own cause."
IN LONDON
Medical Marijuana Buyers Clubs of Ontario will be opening a club in London
by late March. London hemp shop owner Pete Young, a "vocal supporter" of
the buyers' club, said anyone interested in joining can pick up an
application at his shop, Organic Traveller, at 343 Richmond St. Potential
members must have their doctor complete the application. Young estimated
there are "a couple of hundred cases" of patients who use marijuana as a
medicine in the London area. The club's location has not yet been set, but
once it has, Young said, he is hopeful club officials can "open a dialogue"
with London Mayor Dianne Haskett and the London police. For more
information, call Young at 432-4367.
- Julie Carl, Free Press Reporter
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Canadian Crime At Crossroads, US Expert Warns ('Halifax Daily News'
Says William Bratton, New York City's Police Commissioner In Mid-1990s,
Recommends Giuliani's Tactics Of Harassing Squeegee Kids,
But Some Look At New York's New And Improved Murder Rate -
800 Last Year Per 7.5 Million People,
Compared To 61 In Canada's Largest City, With 2.2 Million,
And Note That Efficacy Of Bratton's And Giuliani's Tactics
Is 'Completely Unsubstantiated')
From: creator@islandnet.com (Matt Elrod)
To: mattalk@listserv.islandnet.com
Subject: Canadian crime at crossroads, U.S. expert warns
Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 09:41:25 -0800
Lines: 78
Source: Halifax Daily News
Contact: letterstoeditor@hfxnews.southam.ca
Saturday, February 14, 1998
Canadian crime at crossroads, U.S. expert warns
By TOM BLACKWELL -- The Canadian Press
TORONTO (CP) - Canadian cities seem like New York 25 years ago and
could take a similar spiral into murder and mayhem if they don't nip
lawlessness in the bud, New York's "turnaround" police boss said
yesterday.
William Bratton warned police and politicians here against being
complacent about crime rates that are still far lower than in the U.S.
"Where you are is where we were in the early 1970s," said Bratton, New
York's police commissioner in the mid-1990s.
"My caution is to learn from how quickly New York tipped for the worse
by not paying attention to a lot of these things that caused fear
among the public - graffiti, aggressive begging, disorderly behavior."
He advocated the so-called broken windows approach to policing, which
aims to create a more law-abiding, orderly environment by cracking
down on minor offences.
It has transformed New York into one of the safest cities in the
world, the dapper, smooth-talking Bratton insisted.
But not all experts are convinced.
Other American cities experienced similar crime rate drops and there's
no evidence whatsoever that "broken windows" works, says University of
Toronto criminologist Philip Stenning.
He also said crime numbers in Toronto and other Canadian cities have
been dropping - not getting worse - and that Bratton's ideas could
actually do harm.
"The notion that by harassing squeegee kids you reduce murder rates is
just completely unsubstantiated," said Stenning in an interview.
"The danger is that it's perceived as solving all our problems, when
it doesn't solve any and it further divides the community."
But Bratton's comments to a conference sponsored by the fledgling
Ontario Crime Control Commission earned a warm response, with one
deputy police chief calling him an "inspiration."
Bratton talked of New York in the early 1990s as a city blanketed by
graffiti, intimidated by extortionist squeegee "pests" and besieged by
trigger-happy drug lords.
Canada's largest city, with a population of 2.2 million, had 61
homicides last year, compared with almost 800 in 7.5-million-strong
New York.
Jim Brown, the Conservative backbencher who chairs the crime
commission, has said he doesn't believe statistics that show crime
here is falling.
"Now's the time to stop the nonsense that's going on in the street,"
Brown said yesterday, endorsing Bratton's advice.
"If we're not smart, we'll be there and all of a sudden we'll wake up
one morning with all kinds of murder and all kinds of graffiti and all
kinds of violence."
Police Chief Barry King of Brockville in eastern Ontario said he
doesn't believe Canada could descend to the state of lawlessness
reached by many U.S. cities, but police here must be vigilant.
"I think the citizen's perception is that we're there," said King.
"You won't convince anyone in our community that kids aren't more
violent or they're not under less control than they used to be."
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Colombian Army Accused In Massacre ('San Francisco Chronicle'
Says Colombian Soldiers Did Nothing To Stop, And May Have Aided,
Paramilitary Gunmen Kill 48 Civilians Suspected Of Sympathizing
With Guerrillas - Paramilitary Death Squads Could Be Seeking To Wrest Control
Of Cocaine Trade, As They Have Done In Other Regions Recently)
Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 18:24:46 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)
Subject: MN: Colombian Army Accused in Massacre
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: "Tom O'Connell"
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Contact: chronletters@sfgate.com
Pubdate: Sat, 14 Feb 1998
COLOMBIAN ARMY ACCUSED IN MASSACRE
Mayor says soldiers did nothing to stop 48 from being slain
BOGOTA -- Colombian soldiers have done nothing to stop-and may have
aided-paramilitary gunmen who descended on the southern city of Puerto Asis
two weeks ago and methodically killed at least 48 civilians who were
thought to be guerrilla sympathizers, the city's mayor charged this week.
Mayor Nestor Hernandez said Thursday that he warned army commanders posted
in a garrison outside the town of impending bloodshed when the gunmen moved
into the region January 30.
But operating in groups of eight to 10 and often wearing ski masks, the
death squads have continued gunning down people after ~lucking them from
their homes '-om cars and buses, he said.
According to Hernandez, 38 people have been killed in Puerto Asis, 335
miles south of Bogota, while at least 10 others have been slain in outlying
areas.
Hernandez also told reporters that a witness reported that some of the
killers were flown into the area on military helicopters.
Army commander Mario Hugo Galan angrily denied the mayor's account, calling
it "totally absurd."
The spate of killings appears to be part of a campaign by the death squads
to drive leftist rebels from several southern states.
The anti-government guerrillas dominate the region's lucrative drug trade,
earning huge profits guarding crops of coca for top drug bosses. Besides
trying to end the political threat posed by rebels, the paramilitary groups
could also be seeking to wrest control of the cocaine trade, as they have
done in other regions recently.
Hernandez traveled to Bogota last week to ask government officials to
provide protection for the residents of Puerto Asis, a city of
65,000 people with only a 17-man police force. "Unfortunately, they have
done nothing," he said.
Interior Minister Alfonso Lopez admitted on the Radionet network that
"there has been a large number of murders and deaths (in Puerto Asis) ...
that is very disturbing for the government."
Last year, paramilitary leader Carlos Castano announced that his units
would push into Putumayo, where Puerto Asis is located, and other southern
states.
But the killings in and around Puerto Asis illustrate a change in tactics
of the landowner-backed death squads, which sprang up in the 1980s to
combat leftist rebels that kidnapped and extorted money from wealthy
ranchers.
They are selective killings, here and there," said Jorge Rojas, director of
the Colombian human rights group, Codhes. "They aren't going to massacre 30
or 40 people all at once because it generates too much attention and
pressure from local and international (human rights) agencies."
For years, paramilitary units made headlines for gruesome massacres that human
rights groups have long said were condoned the Colombian military.
Castano's men, who operate from a stronghold in northern Colombia, made
their first foray into the south in July, when ti entered the town of
Mapiripan, 175 miles southeast of Bogota, and tortured and killed 30
alleged guerrilla sympathizers over five days.
In October, paramilitary gunmen killed six people in Miraflores, 115 miles
south of Mapiripan.
In both cases, military commanders were aware of the killing sprees but
failed to stop them, Colombian prosecutors and human rights investigators
say.
Paramilitary forces had never before ventured into Putumayo remote jungle
region on the border with Ecuador. In much of lawless state, leftist
rebels: more prevalent than the army, raising the prospect of a bloody turf
battle.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Skipper Free After Cocaine Charges Are Thrown Out (Ireland's 'Examiner'
Notes Case Against Icelandic Captain At Cork Circuit Criminal Court Collapses
And He Walks Free)
Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 14:53:59 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar
Subject: MN: Ireland: Skipper Free After Cocaine Charges Are Thrown Out
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Zosimos
Pubdate: Sat, 14 Feb 1998
Source: The Examiner (Ireland)
Author: Liam Heylin
Contact: exam_letters@examiner.ie
SKIPPER FREE AFTER COCAINE CHARGES ARE THROWN OUT
THE Icelandic captain - and former Lutheran Minister - thanked God and his
legal team as he walked free from Cork Circuit Criminal Court, yesterday,
when the case against him for conspiring to import cocaine collapsed, and a
Youghal fisherman who pleaded guilty to the same charge was given a 10-year
suspended prison sentence.
John O'Shea (44), 7 Raheen Park, Youghal, Co Cork, pleaded guilty on Monday
for his part in a conspiracy to import cocaine, and Judge AG Murphy imposed
the suspended sentence. However, the media was ordered not to disclose this
decision until the trial of Sigurdur Arngrimsson ended, as it was believed
that such disclosure might have prejudiced the jury in their consideration
of the case that went to trial.
Det Sgt John Healy testified that O'Shea was the cook on the Tia and was
involved in a conspiracy to import cocaine from Surinam in South America to
Ireland. He described O'Shea as "a small cog in a big machine." O'Shea told
gardai he was paid a monthly salary to do the cooking on the voyage.
Judge Murphy said that he would normally impose a custodial sentence on
such a serious charge, but he noted the garda's evidence that O'Shea "tried
to back out," but was under pressure from other individuals. As events
unfolded in courtroom one at the Washington Street courthouse in Cork,
yesterday, the jury was told by Judge Murphy to return a verdict of not
guilty in the case against Arngrimsson from Malmo, Sweden, on the
conspiracy to import drugs charge.
Defence senior counsel Ciaran O'Loughlin, made a successful submission to
the judge that key evidence was inadmissible as Arngrimsson had been
unlawfully detained, following the failure of the gardai and customs
officials to find any drugs on the ship.
Arngrimsson was arrested on November 5, 1996, at Castletownbere, Co Cork,
and Mr O'Loughlin said that he should have been released at 1 p.m. on
November 9. Judge Murphy agreed, and ruled: "That was not done and anything
else that emerged afterwards was inadmissible." The development followed
three days of legal argument, in the absence of the jury, on the
admissibility of evidence.
The court had been told that gardai "were acting on confidential
information that he (the defendant) was involved in drug-trafficking from
South America to Ireland; that alterations had been carried out to his ship
that were not justified; that drugs were concealed on the ship, and that
the ship had gone a long journey without a cargo."
Arngrimsson said he did not trust the Irish legal system until yesterday,
and solicitor Ray Hennessy joked that there were times when the defendant
did not even trust him.
He said that the first time that he worried about the outcome of the trial
was on Monday when O'Shea pleaded guilty.
The former Lutheran priest said that his wife Siggi died six years ago,
yesterday. He believed that she and his mother were both "with me in
spirit," he said, as he wept outside the courtroom.
He said that he saw a good omen during the week at the guesthouse where he
stayed in Cork. "My mother used to feed stray cats. The woman there (in the
guesthouse) was feeding stray cats, too. I knew from that that my mother
was with me in spirit."
Relieved that the trial was over, the 66-year-old defendant plans to return
to Sweden. He said that the idea of drug-trafficking went against
everything he had done in the course of his life.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
[End]
to 1998 Daily News index for February 12-18