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Dump The Marijuana Thug Force (American Antiprohibition League
Sponsors Rally And Demonstration In Portland 4 PM Friday, March 6,
To Protest Marijuana Task Force)
Date: Mon, 2 Mar 1998 03:31:12 -0800 (PST)
From: Anti-Prohibition Lg (aal@inetarena.com)
To: Mayor Vera Katz (mayorkatz@ci.portland.or.us)
cc: Portland Police (police@teleport.com)
Subject: CanPat - DUMP THE Marijuana Thug Force
Sender: owner-cannabis-patriots-l@teleport.com
The AMERICAN ANTIPROHIBITION LEAGUE
Sponsors of the OREGON DRUGS CONTROL AMENDMENT
http://ns2.calyx.net/~odca
Drug War, or Drug Peace?
3125 SE BELMONT STREET
PORTLAND OREGON 97214
503-235-4524
fax:503-234-1330
Email:AAL@InetArena.com
As of: Monday, March 2, 1998
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ANTIPROHIBITION LEAGUE, PORTLAND N.O.R.M.L., & PDXs newspaper
CALL FOR A 1ST AMENDMENT GATHERING
TO
NON-VIOLENTLY EXPRESS OUR OUTRAGE AGAINST THE
MARIJUANA THUG FORCE (MTF)
(otherwise known as the Marijuana Task Force)
WE DEMAND AN END TO:
'KNOCK & TALK!' & WARRANTLESS/UNSAFE SEARCHES
IGNORING CITIZEN & OFFICER SAFETY
STEALING FAMILY HOMES/SAVINGS
SCARING INNOCENT CHILDREN
TAKING MEDICINE FROM THE SICK AND DYING
PLEASE
STOP THE VIOLENCE * RE-EXAMINE POLICE PRIORITIES
ADULT MARIJUANA PROHIBITION HAS GONE TOO FAR!
POT COPS OUT OF CONTROL!
COME SHOW YOUR SUPPORT & SIGN A PETITION THAT
DEMANDS MAYOR KATZ IMMEDIATELY DISBAND THESE ROGUE COPS
FRIDAY, MARCH 6 * RAIN OR SHINE * AT 4:00P.M.
GATHER AT PARK BLOCK DIRECTLY ACROSS FROM THE DOWNTOWN JUSTICE CENTER
(between S.W. 3rd and 4th, Taylor and Main streets)
BRING SIGNS, DRUMS, INCENSE, COSTUME, STAY COOL, LOVE ONE ANOTHER
SPEAK-OUT STARTS AT 4:30 AND ENDS AT 6:00P.M.
MTF VICTIMS AND THEIR FAMILIES ARE ESPECIALLY ENCOURAGED TO SPEAK
Call 235-4524 for more info.
VOLUNTEERS WELCOME AND NEEDED!
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Planned Intake Center Reshapes Prisons (While 'The Oregonian' Admits
Oregon's Prison System Is Focused Primarily On Punishment,
It Characteristically Fails To Mention How State's Exploding Prison Budget
Has Crippled Funding For Education, Or How Much Worse Things Will Get
As Oregon's Prison Population Is Expected To Grow From 7,950 To 15,000
Within Next Decade, Requiring As Many As Seven New Prisons By 2007)
The Oregonian
oregonlive.com
letters to editor - letters@news.oregonian.com
March 2, 1998
Planned intake center reshapes prisons
More extensive evaluations at the Wilsonville site
should help the corrections department blend
work and punishment for every state inmate
By Dana Tims
of The Oregonian staff
OREGON CITY - Two guards in gun-metal gray
jumpsuits and polished black boots get the word
first.
The Blue Bird is on its way in.
They walk quickly, shoulder to shoulder, down a
long, fluorescent-bathed hallway toward the
inmate entrance. A half-dozen guards in dark-blue
uniforms round out the welcoming committee at
the Oregon Correctional Intake Center.
A blue-and-white bus, with the manufacturer's
"Blue Bird" emblazoned in silver letters across the
front, quickly disgorges the two dozen newest
initiates to the state's burgeoning prison
population.
As the chained prisoners in white jumpsuits walk
awkwardly toward the cluster of guards, they also
are approaching an intake system that is itself
about to undergo a serious reshaping.
Although obscured by the roar of opposition to a
women's prison in Wilsonville, the statewide
intake center envisioned for the former
Dammasch State Hospital represents a gateway to
what prison officials say is the future of Oregon's
work-oriented penal system.
The center will constitute one-third of the entire
$151 million project at Dammasch. It will cover
more than 110,000 square feet and account for
432 beds of the center's total of 1,112. It will be
almost twice as large as the state's cramped
Oregon City intake center that it will replace. "It
used to be so easy," said Larry Daniels, intake
center manager. "All the older guys went to the
state penitentiary, the younger guys went to the
Oregon State Correctional Institution, and the
women went to the women's prison."
Oregon prison administrators have hustled
furiously for four years to comply with ballot
measures calling for longer prison sentences and
requirements that inmates log the same 40-hour
work weeks that most voters do. Taken together,
the initiatives have swelled the state's inmate
population to record numbers and created a more
diverse, and therefore more difficult to manage,
mix of prisoners.
Not only are administrators overseeing an
unprecedented building boom, but they also are
pushed by mandates to provide enough training
and education to allow inmates to hold jobs. They
also have to kindle the private-public partnerships
capable of producing enough work for the state's
7,950 men and women prisoners, while at the
same time avoiding competition with private
businesses in the same field.
Now, with a much larger and more complex
inmate intake center preparing for construction at
Wilsonville, prison officials are putting the final
touches on a plan they say will better blend work
into a system that has focused primarily on
punishment.
In the end, they predict, the revamped system will
better serve not only inmates but the taxpayers
who finance their stay and the communities that
will, sooner or later, become home for ex-cons.
"This is not so much an altruistic approach as it is
a practical one," said Dave Cook, corrections
department director. "If what we do doesn't
translate into more success for inmates once they
are released, the citizens haven't benefited from
the investment they've made, and we haven't
done a very good job."
Prison officials say the in-depth psychological and
vocational evaluations at the new center will play
a pivotal role in meeting public demands that
convicts must work.
"If there's one thing we've learned over the years,
it's that `one-size-fits-all' does not work," said
Larry Herring, who administers program support
services for the state Department of Corrections.
"We think we've got something here that will."
Experts praise plan
What Measures 11 and 17 did not address were
the stumbling blocks that caused a sizable number
of inmates to end up jailed in the first place -
deficiencies involving education, mental health,
antisocial behavior, and drug and alcohol
dependencies.
None of those mattered much a decade ago,
when the notion of prison as a place where
rehabilitation could take place had largely faded
from the legal lexicon.
The state's new plan for prisoners already has
drawn solid reviews from national prison experts.
If it is implemented correctly, those experts say, it
could result in a 40 percent drop in the state's
recidivism rate, placing Oregon near the top in
reducing the number of felonies committed within
a three-year period after an inmate's release from
prison.
"I think that for many states, what is happening in
Oregon will make it a leader in this field," said
Thomas O'Connor, director of the Center for
Social Research in Washington, D.C. "The intake
center is just the beginning of the process, but it is
perhaps the most important single step."
Inmates evaluated
The intake process now takes from nine to 15
days. During that time, inmates funneled into the
state system from Oregon's 36 counties undergo
medical and physical evaluations, receive
individual counseling and take a series of written
tests designed to measure both educational
background and antisocial behaviors.
Their contact with the outside world is limited to
collect telephone calls. Visitors are not allowed.
Prisoners get only two things to read: the Bible
and The Oregonian. There is no television or
recreation yard available.
"The things we are asking them to do here are
some of the things they detest most in life, such
as taking tests," Daniels said. "We want them to
be as focused as possible."
Now, only men are evaluated. Women will be
included in the process for the first time in
Wilsonville.
When the Blue Bird buses roll into the new intake
center, inmates will be looking at a stay of
between 30 and 45 days. During that time, they
will receive intensive evaluations designed to help
administrators decide which institution the
inmate's skills will be most suited for.
One person might have a knack for the
computer-assisted design program at the Snake
River Correctional Institution in Ontario. Another
may thrive making Prison Blues, a
jeans-manufacturing operation now run for the
state by a private company at Eastern Oregon
Correctional Institution in Pendleton. A third
might fit in at the Oregon State Penitentiary's
wood design shop in Salem, which makes
eye-popping art selling for thousands of dollars.
Upon leaving Wilsonville, inmates carry a plan
that will follow them through their entire
sentence. It will contain specific goals addressing
continuing education and job-training
requirements, as well as any treatment for mental
health and drug and alcohol problems.
The plan includes incentives for good behavior
and reaching goals that can pay off in the form of
increased canteen privileges and other benefits.
Indications are that the plan works, the
Department of Corrections' Herring said.
Disciplinary reports have been cut by 35 percent
at various institutions where the incentives have
been used in pilot projects.
"What people need to keep in mind is that no one
is feeling sorry for inmates or feeling that we owe
them anything," Herring said. "This is strictly
about good business. We're using their labor to
get the highest possible return while they are
incarcerated and training them to help guarantee
they don't victimize more people once they are
released." Some Wilsonville residents continue to
oppose the prison and, usually as an afterthought,
the intake center. They call it a ruinous use of
land that they wanted for an "urban village" of
homes, shops, businesses and schools among
Dammasch's tree-lined campus setting.
Several locals have vowed to fight the prison in
court. So far, they have lost every round - most
recently on Friday, when the corrections
department turned down Wilsonville's nomination
of a 130-acre alternative site.
Some of the center's staunchest opponents,
however, agree that the geography that has made
Wilsonville the hub of the state's warehousing and
transportation business - its location at the vortex
of Interstate 5 and Interstate 205 - makes the area
ideally suited to warehouse prisoners and to
receive and ship them around the state.
"It's really the specific location that we don't like,"
Wilsonville Mayor Charlotte Lehan said. "This is
just a bad land-use decision." According to state
projections, the intake center will continue to
increase in importance as the prison building
boom makes the Department of Corrections by
far the fastest-growing state agency.
The department forecasts that Oregon's prison
population will top 15,000 within a decade.
Accommodating those inmates will mean building
as many as seven new prisons by 2007.
In the end, each and every bed will be filled by
someone who, whether they wanted to or not,
caught a ride on a Blue Bird bound for intake.
Dana Tims covers growth and Wilsonville for
The Oregonian's MetroSouthwest news bureau.
He can be reached by phone at 294-5973, by
e-mail at danatims@news.oregonian.com, by fax
at 968-6061, or by mail at 15495 S.W. Sequoia
Parkway, Portland, Ore. 97224.
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Olympic Snowboarders Arrested On Marijuana Charges ('Associated Press'
Says Two Olympic Snowboarders, Michael Kildevaeld
Of Denmark's Snowboarding Team, And Canadian Brett Tippie Were Arrested
With 2 Grams Of Cannabis And A Pipe Saturday After Being Stopped For Speeding
On US 395 Near Topaz Lake, Nevada - Hood River, Oregon, Snowboarder
Anton David Pogue Was Asleep And Released)
Date: Tue, 03 Mar 1998 15:00:41 -0500
To: DrugSense News Service
From: Richard Lake
Subject: MN: US NV: Wire: Olympic Snowboarders Arrested On Marijuana Charges
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: David.Hadorn@vuw.ac.nz (David Hadorn)
Source: Associated Press
Pubdate: 2 Mar 1998
OLYMPIC SNOWBOARDERS ARRESTED ON MARIJUANA CHARGES
MINDEN, Nevada (AP) -- Two Olympic snowboarders are due in court Wednesday
on marijuana-related charges.
Michael Kildevaeld, a member of Denmark's snowboarding team, and Canadian
Brett Tippie were arrested Saturday after a sheriff's deputy stopped their
car for speeding on U.S. 395 near Topaz Lake.
American snowboarder Anton David Pogue, of Hood River, Ore., was asleep in
the vehicle at the time it was stopped. He was released.
Deputies said they smelled marijuana smoke while speaking to Kildevaeld,
who was driving. A drug sniffing dog found about two grams of what was
believed to be marijuana and a pipe inside the car.
Sheriff's Sgt. Lance Modispacher said Kildevaeld, 31, admitted the
substance belonged to him.
Kildevaeld has been charged with felony marijuana possession and
misdemeanor charges of possession of drug paraphernalia and driving under
the influence. His bail was set at $7,000.
Tippie, 29, was charged with being under the influence of marijuana. His
bail was set at $5,000.
A preliminary hearing in Douglas County Justice Court was scheduled Wednesday.
Modispacher said the three were traveling from a snowboarding event to Big
Bear Ski Resort in Southern California.
The arrests mark the second marijuana-related controversy in the sport of
snowboarding.
Canadian snowboarder Ross Rebagliati was temporarily stripped of his
Olympic goal medal at Nagano, Japan, when a drug test revealed traces of
marijuana in his system.
However, an appeals panel reinstated the medal. Rebagliati said traces of
the drug in his test came from inhaling second-hand smoke at a party.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Eleven Students Arrested For Drug Dealing At University Of Arkansas
At Fayetteville ('Chronicle Of Higher Education Daily News'
Says Chancellor John White Authorized Six-Week Investigation In Which
Undercover Police Moved Into Dormitories And Posed As Students
After Unspecified Evidence Pointed To Increased 'Drug Dealing' -
University Nets Six Ounces Of Marijuana, Six Marijuana Plants,
A Quarter Ounce Of Psilocybin Mushrooms, $1,603 In Cash,
Two Jeep Cherokees And A Lot Of Students Who Will Probably Never Send A Dime
To Their Alma Mater In The Future No Matter What)
Date: Tue, 03 Mar 1998 17:33:39 -0500
To: DrugSense News Service
From: Richard Lake
Subject: MN: US AR: 11 Students Arrested for Drug Dealing at U. of Arkansas
at Fayetteville
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Marcus-Mermelstein Family
Pubdate: Mon, 2 Mar 1998
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education Daily News
Author: Jeffrey Selingo
Contact: editor@chronicle.com
Website: http://chronicle.com
11 STUDENTS ARRESTED FOR DRUG DEALING AT U. OF ARKANSAS AT FAYETTEVILLE
A six-week undercover investigation into drug dealing at the University of
Arkansas at Fayetteville led to the arrests last week of 14 people, 11 of
them students.
The arrests came after two young police officers from a state drug task
force moved into dormitories and posed as students.
The university police asked the drug task force for help after finding that
drug dealing had increased in three dormitories last semester. John White,
the university's chancellor, approved the undercover operation, said Julie
Kegley, a spokeswoman for the institution.
Seven of the students arrested on Wednesday night live off the campus. All
of the students, who range in age from 18 to 22, will face university
disciplinary action, Ms. Kegley said on Sunday.
The charges included possession, manufacturing, and delivery of marijuana
and psilocybin mushrooms. Five students were arrested on suspicion of
possessing firearms in addition to the drug charges.
Police also seized six ounces of marijuana, six marijuana plants, a quarter
of an ounce of psilocybin mushrooms, $1,603 in cash, and two Jeep Cherokee
vehicles.
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DrugSense Focus Alert Number 56 - Oklahoma Or Bust
(DrugSense Asks Reform Advocates To Write A Letter
To 'The Daily Oklahoman' Responding To Misinformed Letter
By Mark D. Woodward, Public Information Officer
For Oklahoma Bureau Of Narcotics And Dangerous Drugs Control)
Date: Mon, 02 Mar 1998 11:23:11 -0800
To: mgreer@mapinc.org
From: Mark Greer
Subject: DrugSense FOCUS Alert #56 Oklahoma or Bust
DrugSense FOCUS Alert #56 Oklahoma or Bust
WRITE A LETTER - HELP CHANGE THE WORLD
A published letter can have a value of hundreds or thousands of dollars for
reform and can effect millions of readers. It is a great (perhaps the best)
way for a reform minded person to spend their time.
Send ideas or comments to MGreer@mapinc.org
***
OKLAHOMA - The Drug War Dark Ages
This looks like GREAT FOCUS material! This Oklahoma Narcotics "public
information officer" is worse than mistaken, he seems to be out & out
dishonest.
Responses from MDs & PHDs can really put the lie to this narcs "health &
safety" justification of prohibition.
It's Oklahoma that sentenced Will Foster to 93 years for his medicinal
cannabis use. We have had little in the way of LTEs published on this an we
now have an email address for a major OK paper.
***
PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER
Please post your letters to the MAPTalk list if you are subscribed, or
return a copy to me at this address by simply hitting REPLY to this FOCUS
Alert or emailing to MGreer@mapinc.org
THREE REASONS WHY THIS IS _VERY_ IMPORTANT
1) This is how we track and measure our success and impress potential funders.
2) Your letter will be posted - It will help motivate others to follow suit.
3) You efforts provide an example - giving others ideas on what to write
about.
***
EDITORIAL HELP
Forward your rough draft to mapedit@mapinc.org for editorial review if you
wish some editorial help (Strongly suggested if you use MAP or any reform
org name in your letter).
If you would rather write to your local paper on this topic please do so
but still send us a copy.
Remember: Your name, address, city, and *phone number* are required by most
publications in order to publish your letter. Only your name and city will
be printed. Pen names may be used if you prefer.
"IT'S NOT WHAT OTHERS DO IT'S WHAT YOU DO."
***
CONTACT INFO
Daily Oklohoman
EMAIL:pathfind@ionet.net
Or you can write your LTE and then go on line and paste it into the window at:
http://www.oklahoman.com/?ed-writeus
Or you can fax the Oklahoman at:
FAX 405.475.3988
Whatever you do "Just DO it." Even a few words like "Woodward's completely
out to lunch and misinformed on drug policy" is better than nothing.
***
THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Newshawk: Michael A. Clem, OK NORML
Source: The Oklahoman
Pubdate: 24 Feb 1998
Contact form: http://www.oklahoman.com/?ed-writeus
FAX: 405.475.3988
Website: http://www.oklahoman.com/
DRUG WAR A MATTER OF HEALTH
To The Editor:
Michael A. Clem (''Your Views,'' Feb. 18) rants about the money he believes
is being foolishly spent fighting drugs in this country. Mr. Clem, this is
not a money issue. It is about health and safety and those whose lives are
being torn apart because of drugs. At what point do we stop spending money
because it's too expensive to protect children and adults?
Clem suggests that the ''War on Drugs'' hasn't worked. He mentioned the 3.6
million chronic drug users in this country. That's less than 3 percent of
the population. Thus, 97 percent of this country is staying clear of drugs.
Furthermore, drug use in the United States dropped for 12 straight years
(1980 to 1992) because of the policing, treatment and education strategies
of the drug war.
As for decriminalizing drug offenses, Clem should look at other countries
that have tried this. Legalization has been a monumental failure; these
countries are now strengthening their laws due to increased crime and
record addiction rates. Don't be fooled into thinking that legalizing drugs
will do anything but add fuel to the inferno. Look what happened when
alcohol was legalized. Lifting the ban on prohibition did little to solve
alcohol-related accidents, addiction rates and numerous other problems
associated with what is currently the most abused drug in the U.S.
Mark D. Woodward
Public Information Officer
Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics And Dangerous Drugs Control
***
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
***
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Editor;
Mark Woodward in "DRUG WAR A MATTER OF HEALTH" (Letters to the editor
2/28) is billed as a Public Information Officer, a less appropriate title,
given his inaccurate portrayal of the facts, is difficult to imagine.
Woodward claims "97 percent of this country is staying clear of drugs."
According to Department of Justice statistics as much as 33% of the
American public has tried an illicit drug at least once. Why doesn't
Woodward know this?
Woodward also states "(The drug war) is about health and safety and those
whose lives are being torn apart because of drugs." Poppycock! It's about
further enlargement of the largest prison industrial complex in the free
world. You don't put people in jail if you are worried about their health.
This country has more people incarcerated than any other nation in the
world. Nearly half of these prisoners are clogging up the system as a
result of convictions for non violent drug crimes yet teen drug use is on
the increase. When do we realize that our drug policies have failed miserably?
Finally Woodward claims that drug policy reform in other nations "has been
a monumental failure." This is another complete fabrication. In the
Netherlands, the only country that has begun sensible drug policy reform,
hard drug use dropped dramatically after turning drug policy over to the
health sector where it belongs.
I notice that of the few people still around that will argue on behalf of
the war on drugs, nearly all pulling down fat salaries that are reliant on
the continuation of our nonsensical, failed, and expensive drug policies.
If our tax dollars must go to such individuals can't we at least demand
accuracy and an honest presentation of the facts?
If the public wants to really learn the truth on the debacle we call the
drug war they should start on the Internet at sites like
http://www.mapinc.org where some regard for facts, science, logic, and
reason is demonstrated.
(CONTACT INFO and PHONE #)
***
Mark Greer
Media Awareness Project (MAP) inc.
d/b/a DrugSense
MGreer@mapinc.org
http://www.DrugSense.org/
http://www.mapinc.org
-------------------------------------------------------------------
New Drug On Campus - Ritalin (Sensationalistic Piece Of Fear-Mongering
In Albany, New York, 'Times Union' Alleges The Hyperactivity Medication
Has Emerged As A 'Study Drug' And A High Among Local College Students,
But Admits It's Difficult To Quantify The Extent Of The Usage
And That There Is 'Little Evidence' Of 'Widespread Abuse')
Date: Mon, 02 Mar 1998 21:45:12 -0500
To: DrugSense News Service
From: Richard Lake
Subject: MN: US NY: New Drug On Campus: Ritalin
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Walter Wouk
Pubdate: Mon, 2 Mar 1998
Source: Times Union (Albany, NY)
Contact: tuletters@timesunion.com
Fax: 518-454-5628
Author: Mike Hurewitz, Staff Writer
NEW DRUG ON CAMPUS: RITALIN
Hyperactivity Medication Emerges As A "Study Drug'' And A High Among Local
College Students
Ritalin, a drug commonly prescribed to treat hyperactivity in young
children, is now appearing at college, where it is being abused as both a
"study drug'' and a way to get high.
The drug's increasing availability among youngsters may be driving its
appearance on campuses, experts say. The amount of Ritalin being prescribed
in the United States increased sixfold in the first half of the decade,
according to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.
"It's probably easier for someone to prod a friend for Ritalin than to go
out on the street and buy amphetamines,'' said Dr. Eric Heiligenstein of
the University of Wisconsin, an authority on the subject.
Experts caution it is difficult to quantify the extent of the usage and
they see little evidence of widespread abuse. Nonetheless, one in every
four of the nearly two dozen students interviewed on some local campuses
recently said they had either experimented with the drug or knew someone
who had. The students asked that their names not be revealed.
Some of the use is recreational, the quest for a mind-bending experience,
students said.
"Hey, you are in an era where prescription medications are readily given
out,'' said a senior at the University at Albany. "This is a psychotropic
drug, and students are curious so they take it to see what will happen.''
Many of those familiar with Ritalin's use said it is readily available from
friends for whom the drug has been prescribed.
"I took it once,'' said a UAlbany sophomore who attended a party organized
so everyone could experiment with the medication. "It was the worst drug I
ever took,'' she said, explaining that she had previously experimented with
Prozac, LSD, marijuana and cocaine.
It left her feeling panicked and confused for nearly seven hours, she said.
A UAlbany sophomore said his friend at Hudson Valley Community College
crushes the pills and sniffs the drug through a hollow pen. "He uses it
when he is playing video games and he's, like, so into it,'' he said. "He
is concentrating super-hard.''
The drug's power to enhance the ability to focus in some people is the
major reason for its popularity, students said. It is used on campus
primarily as a study aid.
"It's helped me unbelievably,'' said a senior art major at Skidmore
College. "I can read three times as fast, and I can soak it in a lot
quicker,'' the 21-year-old said.
A 21-year-old economics major at Skidmore said he has known people who used
Ritalin without a prescription since boarding school, "mostly to get
focused in terms of study.''
Students have long used stimulants, most notably amphetamines or "uppers,''
as recreational and study drugs, said Heiligenstein, head of psychiatric
services at the University of Wisconsin's health services .
Ritalin, or methylphenidate, is a psycho-stimulant made by Ciba
Pharmaceuticals and prescribed primarily to treat hyperactive children.
It is "an amphetaminelike drug,'' a stimulant that paradoxically tends to
increase the ability to concentrate and therefore decreases behavior
problems in children, according to Barry Reiss, professor of pharmacy at
the Albany College of Pharmacy.
Abusing Ritalin is dangerous, experts say. Among its side effects are
cardiac palpitations and sleeplessness. It has the potential to be
addicting if it is not used properly, Reiss said.
There is substantial controversy over even its prescribed use. Supporters
call it a useful tool for handling behavioral problems in children, but
critics say it is an over-prescribed and inappropriate substitute for good
parenting.
There is also growing medical acceptance of the notion that Attention
Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder can afflict adolescents and adults, who can
also benefit from Ritalin treatment.
Frank J. Doberman, clinical associate professor of pediatrics at Albany
Medical College, described the disorder as "a chronic health condition'' in
which roughly one-quarter of patients with the diagnosis may require
medication in adult life.
"Just because someone goes through puberty or goes to college, doesn't mean
the disorder goes away,'' Heiligenstein
The University of Wisconsin's health center writes Ritalin prescriptions
for roughly 80 to 100 students a year, a number unchanged over the last
five years, Heiligenstein said.
None of the college health centers contacted in the Capital Region said
they write such prescriptions. Students who take the medication generally
do so through outside doctors.
New York's regulations for dispensing the drug are among the most stringent
in the nation, and have sharply limited black-market availability,
according to state health officials.
"We have not heard anything in New York about abuse by college kids,'' said
health department spokeswoman Frances Tarlton.
But Doberman said health professionals who prescribe Ritalin for students
are aware of the risk that it will end up in the wrong hands.
"Students from elementary school onward are aware of fellow students who
take stimulant medication and they are aware of the effects of the
medication,'' Doberman said.
"At the college level, where you have students who understand that this may
help them concentrate or study when they are fatigued, they will frequently
seek out this medication,'' Doberman said.
In dispensing the drug, the University of Wisconsin warns users that giving
away the drug is a felony.
But the senior art major at Skidmore who uses it as a study aid said he can
always obtain Ritalin at little or no cost from friends who have a
prescription.
A business major at the college, who has a prescription but stopped taking
the medicine because it upset his stomach, said, "People would ask me for
it and I gave it away.''
Medical personnel at area colleges said Ritalin is barely on the radar
screen when compared with alcohol and marijuana use.
M. Dolores Cimini of UAlbany's counseling center said research on campus
substance abuse found binge drinking to be the overwhelming problem,
practiced by some 57 percent of students.
Consistent with national results, the same survey also found marijuana to
be the next most significant problem, used by roughly 20 percent of the
students, according to Cimini, the center's coordinator for alcohol and
drug prevention.
Ritalin was lumped into a category of miscellaneous drugs whose usage was
less than 1 percent.
The survey was taken in 1990, before the explosion in Ritalin availability.
And Heiligenstein cautioned that it is difficult to quantify the problem by
traditional yardsticks.
"We've gone and looked at emergency-room reports and police reports, which
are the traditional ways of estimating abuse patterns in drugs, and it
doesn't show up there,'' Heiligenstein said.
The University of Wisconsin health center, he said, has only found two
cases of Ritalin abuse in six years.
But Heiligenstein, echoing accounts at school newspapers and on the
Internet, said students consistently tell the story of a fad that started
several years ago in the prep schools of New England and has spread to
college campuses nationwide.
Jeffrey Maloney, an addictions counselor at Siena College, said the issue
of Ritalin abuse has never come up at the monthly meetings of college drug
counselors from around the region, he said.
"But during finals or midterms or crunch-time academics, it wouldn't
surprise me that some kind of psycho-stimulant like Ritalin might be
used,'' Maloney said.
"It's not as prominent as pot,'' said a sophomore chemistry major at
UAlbany. "I haven't had people come up and ask, 'Pssst, you wanna buy some
Ritalin?' People shouldn't be making a big deal out of it -- but it is out
there.''
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Califano - Treat Drug Offenders And Help Break The Costly Cycle (Op-Ed In
'Houston Chronicle' By Joseph A. Califano, Jr., President Of National Center
On Addiction And Substance Abuse At Columbia University In New York City,
Former Secretary Of Health, Education And Welfare From 1977 To 1979,
Says All Those People In Jails And Prisons Belong There,
Now We Want You To Pay For 'Drug Treatment' For Them, Too -
Savings Estimated Using Assumptions That Should Have Made Drug War Productive
Long Ago)
Subject: DND: US: OPED: Califano: Treat Drug Offenders and Help Break the Costly Cycle
From: Art Smart
Date: Mon, 2 Mar 1998 22:23:09 -0800
Newshawk: Art Smart
Source: Houston Chronicle
Contact: viewpoints@chron.com
Website: http://www.chron.com/
Pubdate: Mon, 02 Mar 1998
TREAT DRUG OFFENDERS AND HELP BREAK THE COSTLY CYCLE
By JOSEPH A. CALIFANO JR.
IT'S time to open -- in the nation's prisons -- a second front in the war
on crime.
For two decades we have been filling prisons with drug and alcohol abusers
and addicts and, without treatment or training, returning them to society
to resume the criminal activity spawned by their substance abuse. This is
public policy crafted in the theater of the absurd.
Individuals who commit serious offenses such as drug dealing and violent
and property crimes belong in prison. But it is just as much in the
interest of public safety to rehabilitate those who can be redeemed as it
is to keep incorrigibles locked up.
More than 1.7 million people are behind bars in America: 1.6 million in
state prisons and local jails, 100,000 in federal prisons. Eighty percent
- -- 1.4 million inmates -- either violated drug or alcohol laws, were high
at the time of their offense, stole property to buy drugs, have histories
of drug and alcohol abuse and addiction or share some mix of these
characteristics. Among these 1.4 million inmates are the parents of 2.4
million children.
Of these prisoners, 200,000 dealt drugs but don't use them. The remaining
1.2 million are drug and alcohol abusers and addicts. Some would have
committed their crimes regardless of their substance abuse. But hundreds of
thousands are individuals whose core problem is the abuse and addiction
that prompted their criminal activity. They would be law-abiding, taxpaying
citizens and responsible parents if they lived sober lives.
The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University
estimates that for an additional $6,500 a year, an inmate could be given
intensive treatment, education and job training. Upon release, each one who
worked at the average wage of a high school graduate for a year would
provide a return on investment of $68,800 in reduced criminal activity,
savings on the costs of arrest, prosecution, incarceration and health care
and benefit to the economy. If all 1.2 million inmates with drug and
alcohol problems got such treatment and training (cost: $7.8 billion) and
only 10 percent became sober, working citizens (benefits: $8.256 billion),
the investment would pay for itself within a year of work. Each subsequent
year would provide billions more in savings and economic benefits.
The potential crime reduction is also big league. Expert estimates of
crimes committed by the average drug addict range from 89 to 191 a year. At
the conservative end, successfully treating and training just 10,000 drug
addicts would eliminate 1 million crimes a year.
After three years studying the relationship between prison inmates and
substance abuse, I am convinced that the present system of prison and
punishment only is insane public policy. Despite tougher sentencing laws,
on average inmates are released in 18 months to four years. Even those
convicted of such violent crimes as aggravated assault and robbery get out
in three to four years.
Releasing drug and alcohol addicts and abusers without treatment or
training is tantamount to visiting criminals on society. Releasing drug
addicts is a government price support program for the illegal drug market.
Temporarily housing such prisoners without treating and training them is a
profligate use of public funds and the greatest missed opportunity to cut
crime further.
One of every 144 Americans is behind bars, one of every 60 men, one of
every 14 black men. If we don't deal with alcohol and drug abuse and revamp
our system of crime and punishment, one of every 20 Americans born in 1997
will spend some time in jail, including one of every 11 men and one of
every four black men.
Politicians camouflage the failure of their costly punishment-only prison
policy by snorting tough rhetoric. They talk and act as though the only
people in prison are violent black crack addicts and incorrigible
psychopaths like James Cagney in Public Enemy, as though treatment doesn't
work and addiction is a moral failing that any individual can easily
change.
The first step toward sensible criminal justice policy is to face reality.
Prisons are wall to wall with drug and alcohol addicts and abusers.
Appropriate substance abuse treatment has a higher success rate than many
long-shot cancer therapies. (It could certainly help 20 percent of this
population: That's a quarter of a million criminals who could be turned
into law-abiding citizens and good parents.)
The common denominator among inmates is not race; it's drug and alcohol
abuse. Though blacks are disproportionately represented in prison,
essentially the same proportion (61 percent to 65 percent) of black, white
and Hispanic inmates are regular drug users. Alcohol is more tightly linked
with violent crime than crack cocaine: In state prisons, 21 percent of
violent criminals were high on alcohol alone at the time of their offenses;
only 3 percent were high on crack or cocaine alone.
Each year the government builds more prisons and hires more prison guards.
In effect, governors, presidents and legislators keep saying, "If all the
king's horses and all the king's men can't put Humpty Dumpty back together
again, then give us more horses and give us more men."
We need a revolution in the way we think about prisons, crime and
punishment in America. Our political leaders should put some common sense
behind their tough talk by opening a second front in the war on crime with
a heavy investment in treatment and training for the drug and alcohol
abusers they have crammed into our prisons. If they do, the nation's
streets will be safer, and the cost of law enforcement will be lower.
Califano, president of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse
at Columbia University in New York City, was secretary of health, education
and welfare from 1977 to 1979.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Re - Treat Drug Offenders And Help Break The Costly Cycle (Letter
Sent To Editor Of 'Houston Chronicle' Rebuts Some Of Califano's Assumptions)
Date: Tue, 03 Mar 1998 12:17:39 -0800
To: maptalk@mapinc.org, mattalk@islandnet.com
From: Pat Dolan (pdolan@intergate.bc.ca)
Subject: Sent LTE Re: Treat drug offenders and help break the costly
cycle
Sent LTE to:
Source: Houston Chronicle
Contact: viewpoints@chron.com
Website: http://www.chron.com/
Pubdate: Mon, 02 Mar 1998
Re: Treat drug offenders and help break the costly cycle
By Joseph A. Califano Jr.
***
Dear Editor,
Thank you for publishing the report on Mr. Califano's ideas on the
education and treatment of non-violent drug offenders. I found it most
informative, in the breach, unfortunately, rather than in the word, since
it does raise some disturbing questions.
He failed to say, for instance, why, if he was really concerned about
"breaking the cycle," he chooses to break it AFTER it has begun.
Why is it necessary to wreak havoc in the lives of otherwise law-abiding
citizens by subjecting them to criminal sanctions before starting to treat
them? Under the present law people who are very seriously or even terminally
ill and need to purchase marihuana to alleviate their condition risk being
prosecuted and jailed.
This is inhumane and un-American.
If Mr. Califano and the government consider them in need of treatment, is it
not immoral to fail to offer them treatment? If, as Mr. Califano says,
"filling prisons with drug and alcohol abusers and addicts and, without
treatment or training, returning them to society" is "public policy crafted
in the theater of the absurd," then why not stop the show before it begins?
He seems to be able to recognize that law-abiding citizens do not ordinarily
break the law unless under some abnormal stress such as that created by
addiction. When that is shown to be the case, and where no violence is
involved, it seems to me that is the time to offer medical assistance - not
prison.
According to a report in the current issue of the British medical journal
The Lancet, between 1983 and 1993 the number of deaths from accidental
poisoning by drugs and other medicines climbed from 851 to 2,098.
Against that background, is it not immoral to incarcerate a person for
smoking a weed that grows wild, and which has been described by Judge John
McCart, in a recent judgment (Aug. 14, 1997, London, Ontario) as "not addictive,
is not to be considered as a "gateway" drug or as a cause of amotivational
syndrome, and is comparatively harmless when compared with the hard drugs,
including alcohol and tobacco."
The consensus of the evidence on which he based that judgment was contained
in seven of the most comprehensive reports currently available on the effects
of marihuana use and abuse, and might be best summed up in the words of the
Canadian Government LeDain Commission Report, (1972) which stated: "From
the point of view of lethal toxicity, cannabis must be considered one of
the safest drugs in either medical or non-medical use today."
Now we have the new scandal of no less a body than the WHO suppressing part
of a report which said pretty much the same thing.
Mr. Editor, do you not think it odd that we don't hear about these things from
Mr. Califano? Has he missed out somehow? Or is he in league with the WHO and
other zealous defenders of Prohibition whose "drug treatment and education
programs" seem strangely not to include telling the public the simple truth
about drugs?
Perhaps someone will help me paraphrase a line from Shakespeare: "The truth,
dear Brutus, is in the breach: it's blowin' in the wind."
Yours etc.,
Pat Dolan
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Mexico's Drug Problem ('New York Times' Staff Editorial
Says Mexico Shouldn't Be Certified As Fully Cooperating With US War
On Some Drugs)
Date: Tue, 3 Mar 1998 16:04:00 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar
Subject: MN: US: NYT: Editorial: Mexico's Drug Problem
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Kevin Zeese
Source: New York Times (NY)
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Pubdate: Mon, 02 Mar 1998
MEXICO'S DRUG PROBLEM
The Clinton administration does no favor to Mexico or its own credibility
by certifying that Mexico is "fully cooperating" in the fight against drug
trafficking. Compounding the damage, the White House drug policy director
Barry McCaffrey, fatuously claims that Mexican cooperation is "absolutely
superlative."
A more truthful assessment can be found in the Drug Enforcement
Administration's confidential evaluation, described by Tim Golden in
Friday's New York Times. The DEA concludes that "the government of Mexico
has not accomplished its counter-narcotics goals or succeeded in
cooperation with the United States government." Mexican trafficking has
increased, the DEA notes, and the corruption of its enforcement agencies
"continues unabated."
Though Washington finds it diplomatically inconvenient to acknowledge,
Mexico has a chronic problem with drug traffickers who always seem able to
secure the political influence they need to avoid arrest and prosecution.
This drug corruption greases the flow of narcotics into the United States.
Mexico's drug networks span the border, supplying cocaine, heroin and
marijuana to American users.
Mexico must face up honestly to its drug corruption problem as it tries to
create a more democratic and accountable political system.
The most flagrant abuses come from corrupt military and police officials
who take payoffs to protect one set of traffickers at the expense of their
rivals.
President Ernesto Zedillo's government has made efforts to reform drug
enforcement, but with little visible result. Mr. Zedillo has not moved
aggressively enough to clean up civilian police agencies and has relied too
heavily on military officials, exposing them to the same temptations that
led the civilians astray. A more vigorous cleanup might force a showdown
with corrupt elements of Mr. Zedillo's Institutional Revolutionary Party,
which would benefit Mexican democracy.
Meanwhile, it is misleading for Washington to assert that Mexico is fully
cooperating. The law mandates penalties, including reductions in foreign
aid and limits on international lending, for countries found to be
insufficiently cooperative. But these penalties can be waived in the
interest of national security. That should have been done with Mexico.
Certification is a clumsy tool for encouraging better narcotics enforcement
abroad. The annual review process, now required by law, forces Washington
into difficult choices between papering over problems or offending
otherwise friendly countries. It should be eliminated. But as long as
certification remains on the books, the administration has a duty to report
truthfully to Congress and the American people. It has failed to do so in
the case of Mexico.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Brokers Put On Notice Over Laundering ('International Herald Tribune'
Version Of 'New York Times' Article Says US Treasury Department
Will Propose Rules In Next Three Months Requiring Securities Brokers
To Report Evidence Of Possible Money Laundering, As Banks Must Do)
Date: Wed, 04 Mar 1998 09:59:00 +0000
To: press@drugtext.nl, kiril@student.umass.edu
From: Peter Webster
Subject: ART: Brokers Put on Notice Over Laundering
International Herald Tribune
March 2, 1998
contact:iht@iht.com
Brokers Put on Notice Over Laundering
Bloomberg News
WASHINGTON --- The U.S. Treasury Department will propose rules requiring
securities brokers to report evidence of possible money laundering, as
banks now must do Treasury and Securities and Exchange Commission officials
said.
The proposal, to be issued in the next three months, comes as criminal
prosecutors are stepping up their investigations of securities fraud. At
least two brokers were charged with money laundering following an FBI sting
in October 1996 that led to the arrest of 45 stock promoters, company officers
and brokers.
Catherine McGuire, chief counsel of the SEC's market-regulation division,
said the proposal would increase the responsibility of broker-dealers to
report suspicious activity involving the possible concealment of funds.
"Brokers need to know this is coming down the pike," Ms. McGuire said
Saturday at the "SEC Speaks" conference in Washington.
The proposal is being developed by Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement
Network, one of the department's five law-enforcement bureaus, a Treasury
spokeswoman said. It will be issued for comment for 90 days, and Treasury
officials will review the responses before deciding whether to adopt the rule.
Money laundering occurs when illegal proceeds are concealed, often through
banking or currency transactions. A broker who defrauds investors might
seek to mask the source of this illicit activity by cycling the investors'
money through a foreign broker, said Henry Klehm, a senior SEC enforcement
official in New York. Illegal drug proceeds can laundered through
investments made with'a brokerage, he said.
The Securities Industry Association, which represents 800 of the largest
U.S. brokerages, has been working with Treasury officials on the proposal.
***
The drugtext press list.
News on substance use related issues, drugs and drug policy
webmaster@drugtext.nl
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Yeoman's `Erroneous Hysteria' Doesn't Help Marijuana Debate
(And Four More Letters To Editor Of 'Lethbridge Herald' In Alberta,
All Debunking Erroneous Statements By Prohibitionist Columnist)
From: creator@islandnet.com (Matt Elrod)
To: mattalk@listserv.islandnet.com
Subject: PUB: LTEs Lethbridge Herald
Date: Mon, 02 Mar 1998 08:53:22 -0800
Newshawk: creator@mapinc.org
Source: Lethbridge Herald (Alta.)
Contact: editor@lis.ab.ca.
Pubdate: March 02, 1998
Note: In order of appearance
***
Here's what it says at the top of the Opinion page:
When Tom Yeoman, one the Herald's Community Comment writers,
expressed his desire to see marijuana kept illegal in Canada
in last Thursday's edition, he may not have expected the extent
of the backlash. It came in a blizzard of e-mail from Boston
to Victoria. Following are excerpts from those letters which we
present as: Reefer Madness...
***
Yeoman's `erroneous hysteria' doesn't help marijuana debate
Tom Yeoman has not done his homework. I had hoped that his reefer-madness
myths had been put to rest in 1997 when Ontario Justice John McCart ruled,
``Consumption of marijuana is relatively harmless compared to the so-called
hard drugs including tobacco and alcohol. There exists no hard evidence
demonstrating any irreversible organic or mental damage from the
consumption of marijuana. Cannabis is not an addictive substance. There
have been no recorded deaths from the consumption of marijuana. There is no
evidence that marijuana causes amotivational syndrome.''
Besides, Yeoman's erroneous hysteria is irrelevant to his defence of
criminalizing non-violent cannabis users. Even if cannabis were as
dangerous as tobacco, (where are the bodies?), it would make even less
sense to abdicate cannabis distribution, (and profits), to the
unregulated black market. Contrary to popular belief, prohibition is
at the bottom; not the top of the regulatory scale. We have more
control over corn flakes than we do the so-called controlled drugs and
substances.
For the sake of discussion, let us overlook our over-burdened courts,
prisons and police forces and temporarily accept that Tom Yeoman knows
something that Justice McCart, The Lancet, the New England Journal of
Medicine and every major study on the subject inexplicably missed.
Which of the following dangerous substance distribution systems makes
the most sense?
The Tom Yeoman System:
We remove all taxes and tariffs from the substance.
We remove all forms of regulation, quality control and labelling.
We make the substance worth its weight in gold.
We hire anyone of any age from any walk of life, criminal background
and level of education to distribute the substance.
We sell the substance 24 hours a day to anyone of any age anywhere,
including school grounds.
We pay our distributors on commission to encourage aggressive market
expansion.
We stock our distributors with more addictive products in case they
temporarily run out of our substance.
We arm our distributors so they can defend their extremely valuable
products and protect their market share.
The Le Dain Commission System:
We tax the substance, directing the revenues proportional to the
popularity of the substance, toward education and research toward
making the substance safer.
We regulate quality, labelling and advertising.
We hire licensed, trained, background checked, salary paid
distributors.
We prohibit sales to minors.
MATTHEW M. ELROD
Victoria
***
A few citations to the contrary
Tom Yeoman claims that ``the legalization movement has only a
psycho-spiritual and intellectual desert that it calls peace. Its
strength is emphatically not forensic.''
Since Mr. Yeoman didn't bother to provide citations, and since I don't
accept his claim of omnipotence when it comes to drug issues, I'll
tell you what I know, and cite them.
``The smoking of cannabis, even long term, is not harmful to health.''
The Lancet, Volume 346, Number 8985, Nov. 11, 1995.
``Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically
active substances known to man.'' U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
Administrative Law Judge Francis L. Young, Docket No. 86-22, Sept. 6,
1988.
``The costs to a significant number of individuals, the majority of
whom are young people, and to society generally, of a policy of
prohibition of simple possession are not justified by the potential
for harm of cannabis and the additional influence which such a policy
is likely to have upon perception of harm, demand and availability.
We, therefore, recommend the repeal of the prohibition against the
simple possession of cannabis.'' from The Report of the Commission of
Inquiry into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs, 1972 (The LeDain
Commission)
This intellectual desert obviously covers some vast territory.
TIMOTHY J. MEEHAN
Toronto
***
Claims little more than diatribe
I just read Tom Yeoman's diatribe on marijuana that you printed. He
makes a lot of unsubstantiated claims. I'd like you to explain how you
could print his material without even checking its accuracy.
Take this statement: ``We know we know that tetrahydrocannabinol,
marijuana's psychoactive property, impairs brain functions. Loss of
memory, loss of motivation and ambition, loss of present and future
best efforts. And look what it does to critical thinking!''
There are several government-funded reports which refute each one of
his hysterical claims including the La Guardia Commission, the Shafer
Commission, as well as the Canadian Le Dain report. Several articles
appearing in last month's Newscientist magazine (superbly researched
and referenced) expose the facts and dispel the myths surrounding
marijuana. Yet you print Yeoman's column without so much as a
disclaimer to warn the reader that the author is expressing his
opinion and has not provided any references to substantiate what he's
saying.
Some of his other statements totally contradict accepted medical
facts, such as ``smoking up constricts the blood supply to the optic
nerve''. Marijuana is a known vasodilator. When under the influence of
marijuana, patients experience increased blood flow.
I consider your publication to be worthless since reading Yeoman's
article; if you'd print that, how can I believe anything else you
print?
DAVID SOUL
Boston, Mass.
***
Harmful? So is nicotine
FOOTNOTE:
Editor:
FOOTNOTE: So what if marijuana is harmful? So is nicotine and rat
poison and we are free to purchase those products. In any event, by
what twisted argument can anyone believe that the state has the
right to prohibit its citizens from ingesting any damn substance
they feel like ingesting? What's next, pound cake prohibition?
There is no effective marijuana law in Canada. Anyone who wants it
can obtain it. The law is a total joke, enforced by a joke
government and a joke Prime Minister. And let us not forget that
prohibition always was, and always will be, a failure. Did (Tom)
Yeoman learn nothing from the failure of alcohol prohibition?
Hard to believe that Yeoman has the gall to invoke the name of a
great freedom fighter, George Orwell, in his defence of that brutal
state-sanctioned, prison-filling pogrom we call drug prohibition.
It's all about freedom, no doubt a frightening prospect to a
sanctimonious windbag.
ALAN RANDELL
Victoria
***
Innuendo mixed with mere myth
``Is marijuana use less harmful than alcohol or tobacco consumption?''
Tom Yeoman poses this scientifically settled question at the beginning
of his column, but he never answers the query directly. Instead he
rehashes myth and innuendo. I suspect I know why. As much as he hates
marijuana, the answer to the question runs counter to the premise of
his column. Of course marijuana use is less harmful than alcohol or
tobacco consumption, especially if one defines harmful as increased
risk of addiction and death. Tobacco and alcohol addict millions and
kill hundreds of thousands of people. Marijuana kills no one and it is
not physically addicting.
For Yeoman's notion of the righteousness of marijuana prohibition to
be true, marijuana use would have to be more harmful than death
itself. Maybe Yeoman truly believes this.
STEPHEN YOUNG
Roselle,Ill.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
WHO-Suppressed Report Online (URL Posted For Text
Of World Health Organization Report 'Project On Health Implications
Of Cannabis Use - A Comparative Appraisal Of The Health And Psychological
Consequences Of Alcohol, Cannabis, Nicotine And Opiate Use,
August 28, 1995' - Suppression Publicized In Media Reports
Beginning February 18)
Date: Mon, 02 Mar 1998 00:28:44 -0800
To: mattalk@listserv.islandnet.com
From: Chris Clay
Subject: WHO-suppressed report online
The document that WHO (the UN's health organization) tried to suppress is
now online:
http://www.hempnation.com/library/recreational/who-index.html
***
WHO Project on Health Implications of Cannabis Use:
A Comparative Appraisal of the Health and
Psychological Consequences of Alcohol,
Cannabis, Nicotine and Opiate Use
August 28, 1995
By Wayne Hall,
National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre,
University of New South Wales
and
Robin Room and Susan Bondy,
Addiction Research Foundation,
Toronto
Contents
I. OUR APPROACH
II. THE PROBABLE HEALTH EFFECTS OF CANNABIS USE
Acute Psychological and Health Consequences
The Health Effects of Chronic Cannabis Use
Psychological Effects of Chronic Cannabis Use
III. A QUALITATIVE COMPARISON OF THE HEALTH RISKS OF
ALCOHOL, CANNABIS, NICOTINE AND OPIATE USE
Acute Effects
Chronic Effects
IV. COMPARING THE MAGNITUDE OF RISKS
Quantifying the Relative Risks of Adverse Health Effects of
Cannabis Use
Public Health Significance
Some Direct Comparative Evidence on Consequences: What Users
Report
V. CONCLUSIONS & REFERENCES
TABLE 1: SUMMARY OF RATINGS OF OVERALL EFFECT OF
DRUG USE BY CURRENT USERS (PERCENT)
TABLE 2:TYPES OF PROBLEMS REPORTED IN THE PAST 12
MONTHS BY CURRENT USERS AGE 18 TO 34 (ONTARIO 1992)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Colombia Farmers Stuck With Drugs - Funds To Switch Crops Unavailable
('New York Times' Says Last Year, Colombian Pilots Poisoned 40,000 Hectares
Or 100,000 Acres Of Coca Crops, And Yet The Total Area Under Coca Cultivation
Rose Nearly 20 Percent)
Date: Tue, 3 Mar 1998 16:04:00 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar
Subject: MN: Colombia: Colombia Farmers Stuck With Drugs
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Kevin Zeese
Source: International Herald Tribune
Author: Diana Jean Schemo New York Times Service
Contact: iht@iht.com
Pubdate: Mon, 02 Mar 1998
COLOMBIA FARMERS STUCK WITH DRUGS
Funds to Switch Crops Unavailable
POPAYAN, Colombia - At first, nothing could have been easier for these
struggling rural hamlets than getting into the drug business. Up and down
the Valle del Cauca, these scattered villages climbed on the coca bandwagon
early, enjoying a five-year joyride that is still referred to here as La
Bonanza
But as more and more farmers grew coca instead of food, prices for coca
leaf dropped and the cost of the food they had to buy soared.
Crop dusters financed by U.S. anti-drug efforts poisoned the harvest. And
gradually, the problems that cocaine has fueled in urban
ghettos---violence, shattered families and an addiction to easy
money---reached back to the valley like a curse returning to its roots.
As life unraveled, the coca growers learned that although Colombia was
spending $1.1 billion a year fighting drug trafficking and Washington was
pouring more than $100 million a year into Colombia's anti-narcotics
police, hardly any of that money was available to help communities stop
growing illegal crops.
Washington's strategy in Colombia, where about 80 percent of the cocaine
sold in the United States originates, never included the kind of highly
effective programs in Bolivia and Peru that have helped peasants raise
alternative crops.
Indeed, while drug crops in Bolivia and Peru---where fumigation is
banned---have continued to fall, the world's leading producer of coca last
year was Colombia, where fumigation is Washington's weapon of choice.
"It's ironic and disturbing that the one country where you have massive
aerial eradication is the one where you ' ve got an increase in coca
production,"- said Coletta Youngers, a senior associate at the Washington
Office on Latin America, a nonprofit policy research organization. "There's
something fundamentally wrong there."
Alter two years of imposing sanctions on Colombia for failing to enforce
drug laws, the Clinton administration announced Thursday that it would
grant a waiver to Colombia this year as an acknowledgment of progress in
destroying crops.
But the results have not been encouraging.
Last year, Colombian pilots poisoned 40,000 hectares (100,000 acres) of
coca crops, and yet the total area under coca cultivation rose nearly 20
percent.
While Washington formulates policies to reduce drug trafficking by
poisoning crops, attacking bridges and blowing up labs, the strategy's
limited successes are trumpeted widely. Less well known is the way the
policy affects the peasants who took up illegal crops in a Faustian bargain
to join the middle class.
"They confuse us with the Cali or Medellin cartel," said Eider Gironza
Marnian, a coca grower whose community is weighing the prospects of ending
coca cultivation. "Maybe they think we're rich, too, but in reality, we're
poor. And our children go hungry. "
Under President Ernesto Samper, whose relations with Washington have been
plagued with accusations that Cali drug dealers bankrolled his election,
the Colombian government has tried to promote crop substitution with aid
from the European Community and the United Nations. But the dearth of help
from the United States has sown deep bitterness among Colombians.
Indeed, U.S. officials at the Bank for Inter-American Development recently
voted against a $90 million loan to increase crop substitution in Colombia,
an automatic consequence of Washington's decertification of Colombia over
the past two years in the fight against drug trafficking.
At the same time, the U.S. anti-narcotics funding for Latin America's
military and police more than tripled between 1996 and 1997, according to a
a report by the Washington Office on Latin America.
Still, the seizure of tens of thousands of tons of heroin and Cocaine Between
1988 and 1995 and the destruction of about 54,000 hectares of coca had
"made little impact on the availability of illegal drugs in the United
States," according to a 1997 report by the General Accounting Office.
to 1998 Daily News index for February 26-March 4