-------------------------------------------------------------------
Medical Marijuana Supporters Learn From California - The Measure's Authors
Don't Want Oregon To Endure Legal Battles (Salem 'Statesman Journal' Article
About Oregon Medical Marijuana Ballot Initiative
Filed By Oregonians For Medical Rights)
Date: Mon, 9 Mar 1998 10:31:59 EST
Originator: drctalk@drcnet.org
Sender: drctalk@drcnet.org
From: alive@pacifier.com (Arthur Livermore)
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Medical Marijuana Supporters Learn From California
MEDICAL MARIJUANA SUPPORTERS LEARN FROM CALIFORNIA
The measures author's don't want Oregon to endure legal battles
The Statesman Journal
Salem, Oregon
3-4-98
by David Kravets
Statesman Journal
Backers of an effort to legalize marijuana for medicinal uses
are hoping to create an Oregon law that would avoid the kind
of havoc produced by the nation's only medicinal-use law in
California.
Their goal: to write a November ballot measure that is palatable
to both voters and law enforcement. Backers think they have
that ironed out and submitted the proposal Tuesday to Oregon's
secretary of state.
Americans for Medical Rights is backing medical marijuana
ballot proposals in a number of states, including the District of
Columbia, Maine, Alaska, Nevada, Florida, and Oregon.
The group has learned to include such provisions as outlawing
public use and limiting the amount a patient can cultivate and possess.
But there's one question they purposefully don't answer: How do
you allow the legal use of marijuana without also making it legal to
sell the drug?
"The California law is short and to the point and a statement of
principle and left a lot of questions unanswered," Said Dave Fratello,
spokesman for Americans for Medical Rights. The group based in
Santa Monica, Calif., pushed for passage of California's Proposition
215 in 1996.
The problems came about when cannabis clubs began to flourish
in California. How patients get marijuana is at the forefront of legal
disputes threatening the nationwide drive toward legalized medicinal
us of it.
San Francisco District Attorney Terrance Hallinan promised voters
in 1996 that Proposition 215 would not legalize the sale of. Yet as
many as 25 so-called cannabis clubs have flourished in the Golden
State, and the government is beginning to crack down on them.
"We want to send a clear message that distribution is a violation,"
said Gregory King, a justice department spokesman.
A hearing is set next month in federal court on whether six northern
California clubs can operate, and the California Supreme Court ruled
against the clubs last week.
Another point of confusion is whether doctors can recommend
marijuana to patients.
After Proposition 215 passed, federal regulators threatened to
revoke the prescription-writing authority of any doctor who recommended
marijuana. Doctors filed a class action suit and last April won a preliminary
injunction against the federal sanctions, but the case is pending.
"The argument that is being made by the cannabis clubs is that they are
serving a legitimate need created by the passage of the new law," said
Mitchell Disney, Ventura County Calif., prosecutor suing in state court
to close a club. "Unfortunately for them, the case law that is developing
around Proposition 215 says sales of marijuana remains illegal and that
Proposition 215 is strictly a grow-your-own statute."
And the federal government is "investigating" whether to move against
the growing of marijuana for medicinal uses, King said.
Sponsors of Oregon's measure meanwhile, assure voters that the
proposal does not endorse marijuana selling. The proposal, which they
say is certain to qualify for the November ballot after 73,000 signatures
are collected, leaves it to the patient to grow or to somehow acquire
marijuana through other means such as receiving it as a gift from a friend
who is legally growing it.
"The questions is where they get the seeds or where they get the
cuttings or the marijuana is still up to the patient," said Rick Bayer,
a Lake Oswego doctor who helped draft the initiative.
If passed, Oregon's law would allow qualified patients to grow
no more than seven plants at a time, and if they are growing marijuana,
they can possess no more than 3 ounces of smokable marijuana. Patients
not growing can possess one ounce.
Fratello said the group purposely omitted language about how patients
acquire the seeds to harvest marijuana or how noncultivating patients
acquire the marijuana. He said it was left out because voters might not
approve of the legalized sale of marijuana. Neither would the government,
he said.
"Marijuana is available anyway. The one thing you can do with this law
is protect people no matter how they get it. We did contemplate supply.
If we did put it in, the whole thing could be thrown out," Fratello said.
While marijuana clubs emerged in the 1980's to provide reliable,
nonstreet sources of marijuana to the sick, they operated underground
or with tacit approval from authorities. Since California's Proposition 215
made no mention of them, their legal status is now in dispute.
"Is this law going to create cannabis clubs in Oregon?" Fratello said.
"No. The law doesn't create them. But there's nothing in it to stop them
from forming."
While Oregon's police chiefs dispute the benefits of marijuana on the
sick, they said the measure paves the way toward the legalization of
marijuana.
"Legalizing marijuana for medical reasons is the first step toward the
legalization of marijuana," said Darin Campbell, spokesman for the
Oregon Association Chiefs of Police.
Campbell added that the local authorities would not allow cannabis
clubs like those in California to operate in Oregon.
But sick people are smoking marijuana, regardless of
litigation and drive toward medicinal marijuana.
Stormy Ray, an eastern Oregon woman suffering from multiple
sclerosis, is backing the effort to legalize medicinal use of marijuana
in Oregon.
"Medical marijuana may be the only medicine that can give me
a fighting chance," the grandmother of four said.
Gov. John Kitzhaber, an emergency room physician, said he
supports medicinal use of marijuana. But Kitzhaber is unsure whether
he supports the proposed legislation.
Other doctors are not so sure of its benefits and the Oregon Medical
Association has not yet taken a position.
And for now, the Oregon Department of Justice is not offering an
opinion on the proposal.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
An Imperfect Poster Boy ('Willamette Week' Suggests Portland NORML
Is Uncomfortable About Standing Up For Target Of Warrantless Break-In
By Marijuana Task Force Who Killed One Cop, Wounded Two Others Before Dying
In Police Custody - With Clarification)
NewsBuzz
Willamette Week
Portland, Oregon
March 4, 1998
http://www.wweek.com/
letters to editor:
mzusman@wweek.com
AN IMPERFECT POSTER BOY
Shortly after the news broke that alleged cop-killer Steven
Dons had committed suicide last week, the e-mails were
launched.
The first, a "YELLOW ALERT," arrived at Willamette Week
at 11:21 am on Feb. 25, saying "FREEDOM FIGHTERS
SHOULD PREPARE FOR ACTION NOW." The second,
which showed up two hours later, demanded an independent
investigation into Dons' death, adding ominously, "Dead men
tell no lies, or truth."
Both e-mails were from Floyd Landrath, secretary of the
Portland chapter of NORML, the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws.
From the start, Dons' Jan. 27 shootout with police created a
dilemma for local marijuana advocates and cop critics (two
groups with considerable overlap). On the one hand, the
shooting highlighted controversial police tactics used against
suspected marijuana growers ("Sniff and Grab," WW, Feb. 11,
1998). On the other hand, as the only suspect in a police
officer's death, Dons wasn't exactly a sympathetic figure.
When Dons, who was partially paralyzed, wound up dead in
the jail hospital, it added another twist. He had become a victim
of the War on Drugs, and Landrath was ready to mobilize
like-minded dissidents in a time of crisis.
The gathering, however, had more the tone of a klatch of PTA
moms than a covey of freedom fighters. The meeting started
with a disclosure that there was only one copy of the agenda
and that a recent fund-raising event netted about $100 and
registered four new voters.
The topic of Dons' death was broached.
"Is it suicide, or is it homicide?" Landrath asked the group. "I
remember on Jan. 27th, 28th, a lot of people said, just in
conversation, he won't make it to trial. I had that feeling too."
"Everyone is a suspect," someone else intoned.
Shasta Hatter wondered how "someone who's paralyzed can commit suicide."
That sentiment, however, faded as group members stuffed
envelopes for a mass mailing that would go out later that week.
"We don't want to be perceived as being in the corner of
Dons," said Landrath.
Hatter was even more blunt. "Let's be honest," she said. "How
many people care that he's dead?"
Landrath got the group to agree to a candlelight vigil Friday for
jailed marijuana activist Terry Miller. New signs, reflecting the
recent events, could be made. One sign already asked, "Suicide?"
Group members' reaction to that sign, however, was tepid at
best. The vigil was canceled. On Monday, another e-mail
arrived. Its subject: "DUMP THE MARIJUANA THUG
FORCE (MTF)." It promised a speakout on Friday, March 6,
across from the downtown Justice Center. - Paul Albert
***
[Portland NORML webmaster Phil Smith comments from San Francisco - ]
The link from the article above to Portland NORML's home page
is verbatim, at least as far as the online version of 'Willamette Week' goes.
A couple of the other links added here show that Floyd Landrath issued the
bulletins referred to by 'Willamette Week' under the name of his American
Antiprohibition League rather than as Secretary of Portland NORML.
Since 'Willamette Week' has linked to this site while misrepresenting its
contents, a clarification seems appropriate.
As anyone knows who has followed the Dons case via the Portland NORML daily
news archive, the issue isn't Dons at all. The issue is whether members of
the Marijuana Task Force lied when they said they smelled marijuana being
burned in Dons' fireplace in an attempt to destroy evidence. That was their
legal justification for breaking down Dons' door without a warrant. Does the
factual evidence support the police or did they lie?
If there was indeed burned marijuana found in Dons' fireplace, it is probably
no longer of consequence to him or anyone else. But if there was not
any burned marijuana found in Dons' fireplace, the ramifications may be quite
serious for more than a few people who survive him.
Let 'Willamette Week' report the facts, if it can remember the primary
function of a real newspaper. Only when the facts are made known
can Portlanders know what to make of the Dons case.
With "An Imperfect Poster Boy," 'Willamette Week' is at best trying to make
fun of the confusion its own incompetence has helped sow. Even if the
facts support the testimony of police to a judge that marijuana was being
burned in Dons' fireplace, there remains a real scandal in the inability of
mass media in Portland, including 'Willamette Week,' to answer an obvious
question that has probably occurred to every sentient adult who has
followed the Dons case so far. Only the facts will ever allow anyone to
view the case in its proper perspective - as has always been true with other
facets of America's tragically absurd war on some drug users.
Finally, it should be noted the Terry Miller referred to in "An Imperfect
Poster Boy' is the director of Portland NORML and a medical marijuana patient
whose physician endorses his use of cannabis. Terry is not just a "marijuana
activist," he is a medical marijuana activist fighting for his and others' right
to the best health he can achieve. He is also in jail because police lied
about smelling growing marijuana while standing at his front door. The people
of Portland and Oregon have put this decorated Vietnam Vet and husband with
a little girl and pregnant wife in work release for four months for doing
what his doctor says is good for him, without even giving him his day
in court to try to persuade a jury of his peers that his cultivation of
cannabis was justified under Oregon's "Choice of Evils" statute.
Possibly these facts were omitted from "An Imperfect Poster Boy"
because Judge Ellen F. Rosenblum, the wife of the publisher
of 'Willamette Week,' is the same judge who ruled that medical marijuana
patients such as Terry Miller are not entitled to invoke Oregon's "Choice of
Evils" statute. Willamette Week' may not want its readers to know how
literally it is in bed with the law enforcement community, but its readers
may not otherwise be able to understand why the once alternative weekly
has been completely muzzled as a potential critic of police misconduct
and the war on some drug users.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Protest And Letter Writing Alert (Bulletin From Rapid Response Team
At Drug Reform Coordination Network About Protest Rally
Opposing Federal Lawsuit Against Six Northern California
Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Noon Tuesday, March 24, At Federal Building
In San Francisco, Plus All The Information You Need
To Ask California Legislators To Support SB 1887 And SB 535
And To Oppose SB 2113)
Date: Wed, 04 Mar 1998 20:41:27 -0500
To: drcnet@drcnet.org
From: David Borden borden@intr.net
Subject: CALIFORNIA: Protest and Letter Writing Alert (3/4/98)
***
Drug Reform Coordination Network (DRCNet)
Rapid Response Team
***
Please copy and distribute
3/4/98
***
(To be removed from this list, mailto:drcnet@drcnet.org with
your request. Please specify whether you are asking to be
removed from DRCNet entirely, or only from the California
distribution.)
[PROTEST IN SAN FRANCISCO 3/24 -- SEE BELOW]
Republican Drug warrior Richard Rainey, state Senator from
Walnut Creek, has introduced a bill, SB 2113, which would
sharply restrict the medical use of marijuana. Because it
would modify Prop. 215, it would have to go to the voters as
a ballot measure if passed, requiring major investments in
time and money to ensure its defeat.
Meanwhile, on the positive side, Sen. John Vasconcellos (D-
Santa Clara) has introduced SB 1887, establishing a Medical
Marijuana Distribution Task Force to research and make
recommendations for a medical marijuana distribution system,
and SB 535, creating a medical marijuana research program.
Vasconcellos has also called for a statewide summit on safe,
responsible distribution of medical marijuana, and has
invited Gov. Pete Wilson, Cal. Attorney General Dan Lungren
and U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno to participate.
Please contact your state legislators and ask them to oppose
SB 2113, to support SB 1887 and SB 535, and to support Sen.
Vasconcellos' call for a statewide medical marijuana
distribution summit. Remind them that more Californians
voted for Prop. 215 than Bill Clinton.
Please write to your state Senator and Assemblymember. You
can find out your Senator's phone number by calling (916)
445-4251, and your Assemblymember's phone number, by calling
(916) 445-3614. You can look up your Senators' number
directly at http://www.sen.ca.gov/www/leginfo/finger.html or
view a list at http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/sen-addresses.html
on the California Senate web site. For the assembly, visit
http://ais3.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset9.htm to get
their phone numbers or send them e-mail through
http://ais3.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7.htm on the
California Assembly web site. Or, you can write to any
legislator at the following addresses:
[Your Assemblymember] [Your Senator]
State Capitol State Capitol
P.O. Box 942849 Sacramento, CA 95814
Sacramento, CA 94249-0001
In addition to contacting your own legislators, please also
contact the members of the State Senate Public Safety
Committee: Sen. John Vasconcellos, chair, Sen. Richard
Rainey, Sen. Diane Watson (LA), Sen. Quentin Kopp (SF), Sen.
John Burton (SF), Sen. Bruce MacPherson (Santa Cruz), Sen.
Richard Polanco (LA), and Sen. Adam Schiff (Burbank).
RALLY & PROTEST, OPPOSING THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT's LAWSUIT
TO CLOSE DOWN SIX LEADING CALIFORNIA MEDICAL MARIJUANA
DISPENSARIES. MARCH 24, 12:00-1:00 PM, FEDERAL BUILDING,
450 GOLDEN GATE AVE., SAN FRANCISCO. Tax deductible
donations to provide legal defense, education and assistance
for medical marijuana patients and caregivers can be made to
NORML Foundation -- MMPCF, c/o California NORML, 2215-R
Market St. #278, San Francisco, CA 94114.
For further information on all the above topics, contact
Dale Gieringer, (415) 563-5858, canorml@igc.apc.org,
http://www.norml.org/canorml/.
(Please send copies of your letters to DRCNet at the address
below, via fax at (202) 293-8344, or via e-mail at
drcnet@drcnet.org.)
***
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St., NW, Suite 615, Washington, DC 20036, or made by credit
card at http://www.drcnet.org/drcreg.html on the web.
***
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STOP THE DRUG WAR SITE http://www.stopthedrugwar.org/
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Teen Survives First Brush With 'Zero Tolerance' Policy
('Orange County Register' Notes Orange County Superior Court Judge
Has Allowed An 18-Year-Old Student To Stay At Corona Del Mar High School
Until A March 17 Court Hearing On Whether His Due Process Rights
Were Violated After He Was Suspended When Cannabis Traces
May Or May Not Have Been Found In His Glove Box In Transit From School)
Date: Thu, 5 Mar 1998 17:13:13 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar
Subject: MN: US CA: Teen Survives First Brush With 'zero-Tolerance' Policy
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk:John W.Black
Pubdate: Wed, 4 Mar 1998
Source:Orange County Register
Section:News,page, 1
Contact:(letters@link.freedom.com)
Author:Dennis Love and Stuart Pfeifer-Orange County Register
TEEN SURVIVES FIRST BRUSH WITH 'ZERO-TOLERANCE' POLICY
EDUCATION:
A judge allows the 18-year-old to remain in school until his March 17 hearing.
A Corona del Mar High School senior has won the latest round in a fight
against his school's "zero tolerance" drug policy, but educators say the
hard-nosed, increasingly popular philosophy probably is here to stay.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Robert E. Thomas ordered the
Newport-Mesa Unified School District on Tuesday to allow Ryan Huntsman to
stay enrolled at Corona del Mar until a March 17 court hearing to determine
whether the district acted properly when the student was suspended and
ordered transferred to another school.
Huntsman was an aspiring college student, a three-year golf team letterman
and a member of the school's yearbook staff when a Newport Beach police
officer caught him off campus last month with trace amounts of a substance
purported to be marijuana.
Huntsman was only cited for playing his car stereo too loudly, but police
sent a copy of the report to school officials. The Newport-Mesa Unified
School District decided without a hearing to suspend the 18-year-old for
five days and forcibly transfer him to a different school in accordance
with its zero-tolerance drug policy.
Huntsman took the district to court after he was prevented from
presenting evidence of a blood screen showing he had not ingested marijuana.
David Shores, an Irvine lawyer representing Huntsman, said the district
acted irresponsibly when it relied on the police report. No test have been
conducted to confirm whether the substance found was marijuana residue.
The issue is not the zero-tolerance policy, but whether the district
provided Huntsman due process before acting, Shores said.
Zero-tolerance school policies regarding weapons and drugs seem to be
prospering in these times, despite such instances where parents argue their
children are unduly victimized by the rules.
School officials say the philosophy - which calls for automatic expulsion,
suspension or transfer when students commit specified offenses - has
sharply reduced campus crime as well as incidents of drug and alcohol abuse
at events such as school proms.
"Most people are happy with the system except those parents whose kids get
caught doing something wrong," said Ron Wenkart, general counsel for the
Orange County Department of Education, which hears about 10 appeals each
year from students penalized under zero-tolerance policies.
The Huntsman controversy started at about 1:10 p.m. Feb. 18, when a Newport
Beach police officer stopped Huntsman's car on Vista del Oro and found a
marijuana pipe and a plastic bag allegedly containing trace amounts of the
drug in his glove box.
Huntsman had completed his classes for the day and stopped by his mother's
office and the office of a college counselor at the time he was stopped.
The bag and suspected marijuana, he said, belonged to a friend.
Huntsman gave school officials conflicting reports of his destination at
the time he was stopped. He provided a written statement that he was
driving home and a verbal statement that he was going to school to work on
the yearbook.
In either case, the district contends, Huntsman violated a strict policy
against possessing drugs while traveling to or from school or a school
function. He was ordered transferred to Newport Harbor High School, three
months short of his graduation.
Zero-tolerance policies are not a perfect solution, Newport-Mesa Interim
Superintendent Bob Francy said Tuesday. "But I think most high school
principals will tell you that student activities in this district no longer
are plagued with drug and alcohol problems."
Francy said that in contrast to earlier eras, "Kids come sober to the
dances. Alcohol and drugs tend not to be an issue, and most of us feel that
is attributable to zero tolerance."
Some administrators pointed to a recent national study that showed a drop
in crime on school campuses as further evidence that zero-tolerance
policies are effective.
State law stipulates that certain offenses by students carry a punishment
of mandatory expulsion: Brandishing a gun or knife, the sale of controlled
substances, and sexual assault or sexual battery.
The state "recommends' expulsion for another list of offenses: Causing
serious physical injury to another person except in self-defense,
possession of any knife, explosive or other dangerous object, unlawful
possession of any controlled substance, robbery, extortion, and assault on
a school employee.
Most other offenses fall under individual school district zero-tolerance
policies. As in Huntsman's case, most school district in Orange County
require that students be suspended and then transferred to another school
within the district when violations occur.
Wenkart said most Orange County districts have an appeals process that
begins with a three-member panel at the school level. A student then can
take his case to the assistant superintendent, then to the superintendent,
and then to the county level. At that stage, Wenkart said, the arbitrators
do not revisit the merits of the case but simply ensure that proper
procedures were followed. He said that lower-level decisions rarely are
overturned.
But on Tuesday, Huntsman nodded his head and grinned after Thomas announced
his decision. He plans to attend classes this morning.
"It would have been really awkward, just things like prom, grad night,
classes," Huntsman said of the prospect of suddenly transferring to another
high school.
"I didn't like the way they handled everything," he said. "I'm happy with
the decision. I'm going to be happy attending Corona again."
John Hayashida, an attorney for the district, argued that Huntsman would
not be harmed by attending Newport Harbor High School while the decision on
his transfer was pending in court.
In a motion opposing the proposed order reinstating Huntsman, Hayashida
enclosed a copy of the district's drug policy, which is posted in each
classroom. It states that any student possessing, using, buying or selling
drugs or alcohol on campus, to and from school, or any school function will
be transferred on a first offense. The second offense mandates expulsion
from the district.
"I'm disappointed in the decision," Hayashida said after the judge's
temporary order. "I think it's important the board policies be adhered to."
Huntsman told police and school officials that the bag and pipe belonged to
a friend. He declined to answer questions about the marijuana pipe, the bag
or his drug use after the court hearing Tuesday.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Operation Hotspot ('Palo Alto Weekly' Sends A Reporter Out
On Saturday Night Patrol With The Police Of East Palo Alto, California)
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 10:53:04 -0500
From: "R. Lake"
Subject: MN: US CA: Operation Hotspot
To: DrugSense News Service
Organization: The Media Awareness Project of DrugSense
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Marcus-Mermelstein Family
Source: Palo Alto Weekly (California)
Author: Vicky Anning
Contact: paweekly@netcom.com
Pubdate: 4 Mar 1998
Website: http://www.service.com/PAW/
OPERATION HOTSPOT
A Saturday Night on Patrol with the East Palo Alto Police
Next to the seven shotguns in Sgt. Tom Alipio's office hangs a large Harley
Davidson calendar inscribed with the words "Busy Night, Big City." As Sgt.
Alipio huddles with his officers in the East Palo Alto Police Department one
Saturday night in January, his tattooed arms broader than most people's
thighs, he rattles off the names of drug hot spots that his officers should
patrol that night: Sacramento Street, Buchanan Court, the 2000 block of
Clarke Avenue, East O'Keefe Street and East Bayshore Road.
It's going to be a busy night.
Up to six East Palo Alto police officers have been working overtime two
nights each week since December in the city's most troublesome drug-dealing
areas.
In a city of just 2.5 square miles, police have identified 18 so-called hot
spots.
Police Chief Wes Bowling unveiled the plan--dubbed Operation Hotspot--at a
City Council study session Jan. 15, and told council members that in its six
weeks of operation the team had made 15 felony arrests, seized several guns,
and confiscated a large supply of street drugs, including 2.6 pounds of
heroin with a street value of about $500,000, which police displayed at a
press conference the following day.
The special operation plan was put together at the end of October, Bowling
told reporters. Originally, it was slated to continue for just 60 days, but
Bowling said this Monday that the operation will now run at least through
April.
Operation Hotspot was launched in response to an alarming increase in open
drug dealing in East Palo Alto in the fall of 1997, and an increasing level
of drug-related violence. The violence culminated in 15 murders last year,
including nine people who died in a suspected arson fire at one house on
Fordham Street in April. That tally is the city's highest since it was
labeled "the murder capital of the United States" in 1992. That year there
were 42 murders in a city of just under 24,000 residents.
In 1998, there have already been three murders in the city, two of them
apparently drug-related.
Sgt. Alipio, who heads the operation, explained that his goal is to put
pressure on known drug-dealing areas by stopping the dealers and buyers from
loitering on the streets. Issuing search warrants for specific houses and
going after the big fish come further down the line, he said.
"The target is to keep the streets clear," he said. "We don't want anybody
hanging out. We want to put pressure on the hot spots."
On March 1, the San Mateo County Sheriff's office launched an antinarcotics
sweep in East Palo Alto, according to spokesman Lt. Larry Boss. This will
target street activity, while the county's Narcotics Task Force carries out
undercover work to infiltrate organized crime, he said.
Bowling said Monday that the sheriff's team and Operation Hotspot will
operate on alternating nights, so that the city's drug locations will be
patrolled three or four nights a week.
A Palo Alto Weekly reporter and photographer rode along with one of East
Palo Alto's police officers, John Norden, one Saturday night in
January--just before the floods hit the city--to witness Operation Hotspot
for ourselves.
That night, the six-man patrol team made eight arrests for violations
ranging from possession of rock cocaine to parole violations. The night
before, the same team netted four felony arrests and two misdemeanors and
identified several gang members, Sgt. Alipio said.
This is a chronicle of Saturday night's events:
6 p.m.
Sgt. Alipio gathers the team--himself and three other officers--to discuss
tactics and locations for the night's patrol. Each officer is to patrol the
five or six hot spots identified that night by Sgt. Alipio based on
citizens' complaints and his own observations. The officers will only meet
if they radio one another for help. Two more officers will join the team as
the night wears on.
7 p.m.
Sgt. Alipio and his team don combat gear and bulletproof vests, black
baseball caps and matching black jackets with POLICE printed in bright
yellow on the arms and back so that they can identify one another.
As we climb into Officer Norden's patrol car, he tells us that he was shot
at as he drove along the 500 block of Sacramento Street just a few days
earlier. I ask nervously whether there are any bulletproof vests left over
for photographer Joe Melena and me. Norden says no. There is only one vest
assigned for each officer. The best thing we can do if we're shot at, he
explains, is duck down so that the metal of the car protects us from flying
bullets.
Before we leave the relative safety of the police department parking lot,
Norden explains to us matter-of-factly that there is no shotgun in this
particular patrol car.
"If I get out of the car and get my head blown away," he says, "the best
thing you can do is hit reverse and get out of there."
I wonder to myself what I would do if there WAS a shotgun in the car and
Norden was blown away. I've never used a gun in my life.
I let Joe sit in the front seat, next to Norden.
Usually, Norden has a different companion in the car: an 85-pound Alsatian
dog named Niko, who can sniff out drugs and apprehend fleeing suspects.
As we drive off, Norden tells us that he has already worked 47 hours
overtime in the past two weeks.
"That's voluntary," he says. "I wasn't ordered."
Norden is committed to ridding the streets of East Palo Alto of crack
dealers.
"It's gonna be nice again," he says. "I've been working these streets for
eight years. It's the only place I've ever worked. . . . There's a lot of
good folks out there. There's just a few people screwing things up. And
we're going to clean them up, I guarantee it."
Pedestrians blink as Norden shines his spotlight into their faces as they
walk along the street ahead of him.
We drive west along University Avenue and cross Highway 101. As we drive
along East O'Keefe Street, Norden describes to us the gang friction that
plagues East Palo Alto.
The two main gangs, he says, are two Mexican gangs called the Nortenos (from
the north of Mexico) and the Surenos (from the south of Mexico). The
Nortenos wear red, he said, and the Surenos wear blue. He points out a
teenager in a baggy red jacket walking along the street. Just wearing those
clothes can be enough to get him shot, Norden said.
Another sign of gang members, he says, is tattoos on the hand showing three
dots or four dots. Three is the Nortenos' number, and four is used by the
Surenos. Some gang members have tattoos all over their body, Norden says.
He pulls up at 355 E. O'Keefe St. to show us gang graffiti scrawled all over
the walls of the apartment block.
There is a no-loitering policy at these apartments because they became a
known gathering place for gangs, Norden says. He and Sgt. Alipio stop and
search several men on the stairs. One of the men speaks little English, but
he repeatedly pulls out a large, framed photograph of his smiling sweetheart
from his jacket, as an indication of his innocence, I suppose.
"Most of the folks here are poor Hispanics working two jobs and waiting for
citizenship," says Norden. "They're scared. They're afraid to say anything
because they're afraid of getting killed. . . . They don't call us often
enough because they don't trust us. They don't even trust banks."
Norden says that there used to be as many as 50 people hanging out on the
steps of the apartment complex, but it's a lot better now.
"It was bad six to eight months ago," he says. "It was like a cat-and-mouse
game. We were chasing them but not getting anywhere. That's when we got the
extra overtime.
"Now they're afraid to be out here," he says. "We've been nailing these
areas real good."
According to Norden, the majority of gang members are from out of town,
mainly from Redwood City or Mountain View.
7:30 p.m.
Three teenagers walking along Clarke Avenue are our next stop. The street is
around the corner from Buchanan Court, a known drug hot spot where residents
allegedly hear gunfire regularly.
The three suspects smile amiably as Norden checks their driver's licenses
and another officer takes Polaroid pictures of each one of them for police
records.
"We're ID'ing everyone we find loitering," says Norden.
"We're getting so many complaints off Buchanan Court," says Sgt. Jeff
Justus, one of the four officers at the scene. "One lady called us eight
times last night. Now we can use the photos (to identify people.) It's just
another tool we can use."
Norden says the teenagers know him because he's stopped them several times
already. He even got a card from one of their families, he says. This time
he sends them on their way with a pep talk.
"The bottom line is it's gotta stop," he says of the gunfire.
"I know, man," says one of the teenagers. "I don't like it either."
8 p.m.
Two patrol cars are already pulled over with lights flashing as we draw up
outside East Side Market and Liquor Store on the corner of Clarke Avenue and
Bay Road, a notorious drug-dealing spot. A car has been pulled over for a
traffic violation. As police officers question the driver, they smell
marijuana. They find a joint on the dashboard.
On searching the car, officers find a tool for removing tags from clothes
inside a backpack and a handful of tags ripped from clothing. The driver of
the car--Dia Kareem Baily of Jasmine Way in East Palo Alto--is arrested for
possession of marijuana and burglary tools. The passenger of the car becomes
hysterical as her friend is handcuffed. "Leave him alone," she wails. Baily,
who told police he is unemployed, is taken to the police department for
further questioning. His car is towed.
8:30 p.m.
At the corner of Euclid Avenue and East Bayshore Road, a man and a woman are
swigging vodka outside One-Stop Market. An ID check on the man shows that he
is on active probation. In his pockets, Norden finds a crack pipe and other
paraphernalia.
Anthony William Scott, 38, of Hibiscus Court in East Palo Alto is arrested
for possession of narcotics paraphernalia and for an outstanding felony
arrest warrant. He is taken to the police department for booking. His
companion, known to police as "Gangster Pam" is released.
9 p.m.
Back at the station, suspects are being questioned and booked. Sgt. Alipio
tests several suspects to find out whether they are under the influence of
drugs by shining light into their eyes and testing their pulses.
He is pleased with the night's activities so far.
"I love it when the plan comes together," he says.
So far the night has netted two felony arrests and one misdemeanor arrest,
he says. "We'll have more than that by night's end," he promises.
While we are at the station, another arrest is made outside the One-Stop
Market where Scott was picked up. In the security of police headquarters,
news of each arrest elicits a thumbs-up and smiles from the officers
present.
10 p.m.
There are reports of gunshots at Jack Farrell Park on Fordham Street. As we
drive past the park, Joe says wistfully that he used to photograph Little
League in that park years ago. Norden shines his spotlights into the park so
that it is floodlit like a ballpark for a night game. There is no sign of
activity.
10:25 p.m.
Sgt. Alipio radios for help. He has just chased a group of six suspected
drug dealers from the corner of Laurel Avenue and Alberni Street into some
back yards, he says. He heard them hopping over fences, he tells us as we
drive up.
Five patrol cars, including sheriff's deputies, seal off the area and wait
to flush the suspects out. Norden, Joe and I wait on Laurel Avenue.
Suddenly, a man emerges from the bushes 20 feet away and runs down Laurel
Avenue.As police give chase, a second suspect emerges from the bushes and
runs for it too. Before Joe and I can catch up with them, the two suspects
are laid down on the street and handcuffed. Four of the six suspects are
caught. One of the suspects was only 16, Norden says.
"I'm really glad you guys are here," says one Laurel Avenue resident, who
tells Norden that the suspects have been hiding out in his yard in the past.
"They even tried to shoot at my dogs," he says.
11 p.m.
A fight outside Bell Street recreation center is reported; it's possibly
gang-related. We sail down University Avenue with lights flashing and sirens
blaring, sending cars scurrying in our wake.
Within two minutes of the call, seven patrol cars screech to a halt outside
the recreation center, much to the bemusement of the startled party-goers.
It turns out the report was a hoax.
Sgt. Alipio tells officers that things are starting to heat up. They meet in
the parking lot of McDonald's to discuss tactics without using radio space.
11:20 p.m.
As Norden turns from University Avenue onto Weeks Street, the spotlight on
the front of his car falls on a man urinating against a telephone pole by
the side of Hi and Bye liquor store. In a brief moment of light relief,
Norden tells the man that he won't write him a ticket because the punishment
for his offense is the loud laughter of the man's friends, who have watched
the whole scene unfold from the other side of the street. Norden leaves the
scene chuckling as the friends crack jokes about "assaulting a telephone
pole" and "concealed weapons."
11:35 p.m.
Three teenage occupants of a white car illegally parked at the corner of
Laurel Avenue and Alberni Street are searched. They are waiting for a
friend, they tell police.
Sgt. Bob Cole looks around nervously as we stand in the street.
"Right here, we often get bottles on the head," he tells me.
Norden tells us that in 1992, Alberni Street was "like Main Street USA" at 3
a.m. "It's nothing now," he says.
11:55 p.m.
Norden pulls over a smart white Neon Dodge on University Avenue, after he
sees the car pulling out of Sacramento Street, a well-known drug-dealing
location. He stops and searches the two passengers, a man from Sunnyvale and
a woman from San Jose.
"Did you buy drugs from Sacramento Street?" he asks the man. The man tells
Norden that he was looking for a friend who lives in East Palo Alto.
"Don't play me for an idiot," says Norden. "Why did you pick Sacramento
Street of all the streets in our city to look for your friend?"
Norden asks for permission to search the car, then sifts through the fibers
of the front seat with his flashlight. He finds tiny crystals of what
appears to be crack cocaine and a plastic wrapper on the front seats of the
car. Most of it is on the woman's seat.
12:05 p.m.
Norden reads the Miranda rights to Debbie Stokes of San Jose, who denies
that the cocaine is hers, but she admits that she and her companion bought
$60 worth of rock cocaine from two dealers in Sacramento Street.
She is arrested for possession of crack cocaine.
"It's his car and his stuff," she tells Norden. "He gave it to me. We was
just riding around looking for some more."
12:10 p.m.
The male suspect, Phillip Palacio of Sunnyvale, who is sweating profusely by
now, is read his Miranda rights and arrested for possession of crack
cocaine. He insists that the cocaine belongs to his passenger. He is later
found to be under the influence of a controlled substance, Norden says.
12:45 p.m.
As Norden wraps up the interview with the suspects and waits for a tow truck
to arrive on the corner of University Avenue outside the Drew Health Center
Pharmacy, it starts to rain.
Shots are reportedly heard from the Bell Street party that we visited
earlier. Alipio orders his officers to move in and close the party down.
Suddenly, we see two men running west along University Avenue toward us.
They disappear into a restaurant. Then, three police cars scream to a halt
outside an auto supply store close by.
Moments later, the two suspects are down on the ground with handcuffs on.
Two police officers stand over them with guns pointed.
Joe and I catch up with the officers just as they are bundling the suspects
into the car. We decide we've had enough activity for one night. But the
police keep on going. Weekend nights are their busiest time.
1 a.m.
Back at the station, Sgt. Alipio gives us the latest tally of arrests: six
felonies and one misdemeanor. It's been a busy night. "We've been hooking
and booking all night," says Sgt. Alipio with a proud smile.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Bronx Man Recounts Abuse By Police In Mistaken Raid
('New York Times' Version)
Date: Wed, 04 Mar 1998 19:59:00 -0500
To: DrugSense News Service
From: Richard Lake
Subject: MN: Bronx Man Recounts Abuse By Police In Mistaken Raid
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: "Dick Evans"
Source: New York Times (NY)
Author: Kit R. Roane
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Pubdate: Wed, 4 Mar 1998
BRONX MAN RECOUNTS ABUSE BY POLICE IN MISTAKEN RAID
NEW YORK -- Sitting amid shards of glass in his bullet-ridden apartment, a
Bronx man whose home was mistakenly raided by the police accused officers
Tuesday of kicking and beating him and using a racial epithet as they
shouted, "Where are the drugs?"
The police said they could not comment on the allegations because the man,
Ellis Elliott, was preparing to sue the city over Friday's raid, in which
officers mistakenly burst into the apartment looking for a drug dealer.
Deputy Inspector Michael Collins, a spokesman for the Police Department,
would say only, "There is a vigorous investigation ongoing relative to this
matter." Elliott made the accusations at a news conference at his apartment
Tuesday in which his lawyer, Joseph Kelner, produced a picture that he said
was taken after the incident and showed Elliott with a cut on his forehead.
Kelner offered no other evidence of the alleged beating, saying his client
had only just been examined by doctors.
A police investigator who spoke on condition of anonymity said there was no
evidence of injury to Elliott in the police report that was filed in the
case. Elliott, 44, gave his account of the raid Tuesday pointing out the
bullet holes -- 26 in one count -- that lined the front hall of his
ransacked apartment. "I was afraid for my life," Elliott said Tuesday,
intermittently smoking and hyperventilating into a crushed paper bag. "You
could just hear the bullets tearing through stuff. They wanted to make sure
that whatever was here was going to get it."
As Elliott tells it, several men went to his home at 8 a.m. Friday and
began to bang on the metal front door of his fourth-floor apartment as he
slept. Fearful that the men might be robbers, he jumped out of bed naked,
pulled an unlicensed .25-caliber revolver from his night stand and yelled
at the men to move away from the door. When they did not and the door began
to open a crack, Elliot said he fired a single shot from his gun into the
top of it. The police then returned fire. Only after they strafed both
sides of his vestibule, nicked a bureau in the dining room and shot a hole
through a little earring box resting on the living room table did they
stop, he said. Elliott added that the men identified themselves as officers
only at that point and ordered him to approach the door.
After one of his hands was cuffed, he said, the officers used it to drag
him out into the hallway. "They kicked me and beat me and kept asking me,
'Where are the drugs, where are the drugs?' The only way they would address
me was 'nigger,' " he said. "Then they dragged me through there like a
piece of toilet tissue."
The police investigator said one of the nine arresting officers was black,
three were Hispanic and the rest were white.
Elliott, who now faces charges that he illegally possessed a firearm, was
then finally clothed, though only in a woman's blouse and slacks that
officers took from the apartment. They belonged to his girlfriend, Mary
Barnes, who had left earlier in the morning for her job at the post office.
It was unclear why they had not given him his own clothing. Saying they
were the same clothes he wore in jail until his release on Sunday, Elliott
added: "I was lucky I wasn't raped on the way home." According to the
police, narcotics officers receiving information from an undercover
informant misidentified Elliott's apartment at 930 Sheridan Avenue as one
holding drugs and guns.
The police said on Monday that Elliott would be reimbursed for any damages.
The Police Department conducted more than 45,000 such raids last year with
only 10 resulting in the wrong apartment's being stormed, according to
Marilyn Mode, a police spokeswoman. She said the department did not keep
records on how many of those raids actually produced the drugs being sought
or how many resulted in suits against the city, like the one promised by
Elliott.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Real Drug Statistics (According To Government Statistics
Cited By Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, Nationwide, Alcohol Is Involved
In 50 Percent Of All Traffic Fatalities, 50 Percent Of All Spousal Abuse,
49 Percent Of All Murders, 68 Percent Of All Manslaughter Charges,
20 Percent To 35 Percent Of All Suicides, 62 Percent Of All Assaults,
52 Percent Of All Rapes, And 38 Percent Of All Child Abuse Fatalities)
Date: Wed, 4 Mar 1998 01:06:17 EST
Originator: drctalk@drcnet.org
Sender: drctalk@drcnet.org
From: Phillizy (Phillizy@aol.com)
To: Multiple recipients of list (drctalk@drcnet.org)
Subject: Real Drug Statistics
* FACT: Nation-wide, alcohol is involved in 50% of all traffic fatalities, 50%
of all spousal abuse, 49% of all murders, 68% of all manslaughter charges,
20%-35% of all suicides, 62% of all assaults, 52% of all rapes, and 38% of all
child abuse fatalities.
Source: (Fatal Accident Reporting System, FBI Crime Report, National Center
for Health Statistics, Pennsylvania Department of Health, U.S. Surgeon
General's Workshop on Drunk Driving).
Lizy
***
Date: Thu, 5 Mar 1998 23:37:39 EST
Originator: drctalk@drcnet.org
Sender: drctalk@drcnet.org
From: Phillizy (Phillizy@aol.com)
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Re: Real Drug Statistics
In a message dated 98-03-05 18:09:18 EST, drford wrote:
>Lizy's alcohol statistics on traffic fatalities, spousal abuse,
>manslaughter charges, suicides, etc. is EXCELLENT rebuttal material for
>those people who say "We don't need ANOTHER drug legalized."
Actually, a logical interpretation of these statistics indicates a gross error
in our prohibition priorities. If we legalized every drug known to man,
except alcohol and nicotine, we'd end up several hundred thousand fatalities
ahead of the game. But, body counts aren't prioritized in the drug wars, are
they?
>Does anyone have the source dates?
These data were taken from the web site of the PA Liquor Control Board with no
date noted; nevertheless, as the web site is updated on a regular basis, the
statistics should be considered a contemporaneity.
Lizy
[Go to http://www.lcb.state.pa.us/index.htm - ed.]
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Arrest Prompts Call For Snowboarding Rules (Toronto's 'Globe and Mail'
Quotes Canada's Top Snowboarding Official, Michael Wood,
Administrative Director Of The Canadian Snowboarding Federation,
Saying He Is 'Shocked' To Learn A Danish Olympian
And A Former Canadian National Team Member Had Been Arrested
With Two Grams Of Marijuana While Driving Through Nevada)
Date: Wed, 4 Mar 1998 21:29:04 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar
Subject: MN: Canada: Arrest Prompts Call For Snowboarding Rules
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Carey Ker
Pubdate: Wednesday, March 04, 1998
Source: Globe and Mail
Page: S1 (Sports)
Contact: letters@globeandmail.ca
Author: James Christie, Sports Reporter
Website: http://www.globeandmail.ca/
ARREST PROMPTS CALL FOR SNOWBOARDING RULES
Regulations Against Marijuana Demanded After Danish And Canadian Riders
Charged With Possession
Canada's top snowboarding official is calling for strong regulations and
sanctions regarding marijuana use in the sport following a drug bust of two
athletes as they drove away from a World Cup event in Nevada on the weekend.
Michael Wood, administrative director of the Canadian Snowboarding
Federation, said he was "shocked and frustrated" to learn two riders -- a
Danish Olympian and a former Canadian national team member -- had been
arrested on marijuana-related charges.
Michael Kildevaeld, 31, who was 15th for Denmark in giant slalom at the
Nagano Olympics, faces charges of marijuana possession and driving under
the influence and Brett Tippie, 29, of Kamloops, B.C., was charged with
being under the influence. They were traveling from a snowboarding event at
Lake Tahoe to Big Bear Ski Resort in Southern California when a sheriff's
deputy stopped their car for speeding near Topaz Lake, Nev.
The deputy smelled marijuana smoke and a drug sniffing dog found about two
grams of what is believed to be marijuana and a pipe inside the car.
Sheriff's Sergeant Lance Modispacher said Kildevaeld admitted the substance
belonged to him. A preliminary hearing is scheduled in Douglas County
Justice Court today.
"No matter what we do as a federation, it ultimately has to come down to
the individuals because all we can do is lead the horse to water. We can't
force it to drink," said Wood.
"We definitely have to have sanctions and policies in place to deal with this."
He was particularly troubled that a Canadian should be involved in a
marijuana charge so soon after an Olympic doping test for cannabis almost
cost Ross Rebagliati of Whistler, B.C., an Olympic gold medal.
Tippie finished 31st at the snowboarding world championships in Italy a
year ago. "Tippie hasn't worked with us in a year and a half. He was at the
Olympic trials but wasn't on the national team. But it's not a good thing
for the sport of snowboarding to be associated with drugs," Wood said.
"It's frustrating when the majority of athletes are trying hard, doing it
on their own accord and staying away from drugs and alcohol . . . but then
they get associated with this."
Snowboarders have been stereotyped as the pot-powered, non-conformists of
ski sport."
"It's a hybrid event that imports the skills of skateboarding and surfing
onto a snowy mountainside. It also imports the respective
anti-establishment counter-cultures. Board riders call themselves by the
punkish term "shredders" and some feel they are targeted by various
authorities on and off the slopes. When news of the drug bust hit the
airwaves yesterday, a young man phoned Toronto's FAN radio identifying
himself as a Canadian national snowboarding team member who also had been
at Lake Tahoe.
He said he'd been pulled over for driving 10 miles per hour over the speed
limit in Iowa by police, "but when I told them I was a snowboarder, they
tore the car apart. They found nothing, but you have to be careful out
there."
Currently, Canadian snowboarding has no policy to discipline or suspend
athletes for marijuana use. The use of the substance as a recreational drug
by athletes is apparently acknowledged by the International Ski Federation,
which has established a threshold level for doping infractions. Rebagliati
admitted using marijuana, but not since April, 1997. He blamed the traces
of drug found in his test on inhaling second-hand smoke at a party.
Kildevaeld was the snowboarder who told Danish reporters at the Olympics
that marijuana was part of the snowboarding scene. While he said he used
the drug himself, he labelled some Canadian riders as pot users who "go
down the hill stoned."
Kildevaeld's bail was set at $7,000, Tippie's at $5,000.
"It's frustrating, because I felt what happened with Ross had opened
everyone's eyes that this is a problem," Wood said. "It definitely hurts
snowboarding again."
The sport of snowboarding, while a full medal event at Nagano, had
provisional status. Olympic officials aren't obliged to make it a core
sport in Salt Lake City in 2002.
"But I believe the whole snowboarding experience was positive at Nagano,"
Wood said, not believing the sport to be in danger. "Even with the Ross
issue, it was positive because it opened our eyes to a problem we didn't
realize was there. Now we know what we're up against and can make changes
to prevent it from happening in the future."
-------------------------------------------------------------------
DrugSense Weekly, Number 36 (Summary Of Drug Policy News For Activists,
Including Original Commentary And Articles Such As What History Teaches Us
About Drug Prohibition, By Jerry Epstein)
Date: Wed, 04 Mar 1998 14:53:45 -0800
To: mgreer@mapinc.org
From: Mark Greer (MGreer@mapinc.org)
Subject: DrugSense Weekly March 4, 1998 #036
***
DRUGSENSE WEEKLY
***
DrugSense Weekly
March 4, 1998
#036
A DrugSense publication
http://www.drugsense.org
***
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
* Feature Article
What History Teaches Us About Drug Prohibition
By Jerry Epstein
* Weekly News In Review
Heroin -
Cops Seize 11 Pounds of Heroin
Marijuana -
Court Clears Way For Closure Of Marijuana Clubs
San Francisco Judge Orders Co-Op to Stop Selling Pot
California Marijuana Club Stands Firm Against Court Rulings
U.S. National Drug Control Strategy -
Gingrich: Ban Drug-Using Athletes
Crime, Punishment and Treatment
Prison Guards Indicted
Inquiry Into Goatherd's Slaying Ends
Tobacco War-
Time to Grow Up About Tobacco
International News -
Mexican Soldiers Given U.S. Army Training as Narcotics-Busters
Certification -
Despite Objections, Clinton Administration Certifies Mexico as
Drug-Fighting Partner
Certifiably Wrong on Mexico
Colombia Sees Victory in U.S. Backing for Anti-Drug Effort
Canada: Hemp to Become Legal Crop
* Hot Off The 'Net
New York Times Comment Opportunity
* Tip of the Week
How YOU can Help DrugSense End the "War On Drugs"
* DrugSense Quote Of The Week
***
FEATURE ARTICLE
***
What History Teaches Us About Drug Prohibition
Jerry Epstein
In 1936, August Vollmer, highly respected Berkeley, California police chief
addressed the International Association of Chiefs of Police: "Drug
addiction ... is not a police problem; it never has been and never can be
solved by policemen. It is first and last a medical problem."
Vollmer's own experience was different from ours- he'd lived during a
period when drugs which are now illegal were popular tonics and important
medicines, freely available from drug and grocery store shelves. Cocaine
was in Coca-Cola and some 40 other soft drinks as well. Morphine and heroin
were two of the three most popular medicines; more widely used than
today. When addiction occurred, it was dealt with as a medical problem.
The addiction level had stabilized at about 1.5% of the population (the
same as 1979 and 1997)- despite recurrent media alarms over "epidemic"
drug use. The impact of non-alcohol addiction on society before Prohibition
was so small that few historians bother to mention it. As Edward Brecher
noted in 1972, addicts weren't treated as much of a problem because in fact
they weren't much of a problem. However, no historian fails to note the
devastation wrought by Prohibition. starting in 1920.
Prohibition was our first utopian quest for a "drug free" America, and the
arch villain was alcohol. Then as now, alcoholics outnumbered heroin and
cocaine addicts combined, by more than 5 to 1. Voters were told that one
drink led to certain addiction and that alcohol was responsible for nearly
all of the crime and most of the insanity in America. Doctors even suggested
to alcoholics that they become addicted to morphine or heroin to stop their
crazed and violent behavior.
After passage of the 18th Amendment, reformers promised: "we will soon live
in a world that knows not alcohol." America became swept up in Prohibition
fervor- some people also wanted to prohibit the dreaded and ever dangerous
hesitation waltz. Two 5 to 4 Supreme Court decisions in 1919 reinterpreted
a 1914 tax act so that, in effect, heroin,[AND] cocaine were also
prohibited.
Prohibition allowed Vollmer and many others to see that the unintended
consequences of a prohibition law were far worse than those of the
prohibited substance. Repeal of the 18th Amendment followed when
concerned mothers - initially led by Republican women in 1928- realized
that children had easier access to alcohol and were using it at a shocking
rate even as adult use was decreasing. Respect for the had law plummeted;
the criminal justice system became swamped; violent crime and corruption
exploded; petty thugs received a bonanza which spawned today's powerful
criminal organizations. Prohibition was repealed, but heroin and cocaine
prohibition remained as a criminal enterprise which also provided
employment for the bureaucracy set up to enforce Prohibition. Over time,
and with a hiatus for the Second World War, the son of Prohibition grew
larger than the father - history has been allowed to repeat itself with a
vengeance.
This brief history suggests there are many lessons to be learned from
careful analysis of the past. A commonly expressed fear is that change in
drug policy will produce a "nation of zombies." History tells us that there
is a real difference between drug use and addiction, and that a natural human
abhorrence of addiction insulates most of us from that danger. There is
also strong evidence that those who, for whatever reasons, are prone to
addiction are not deterred by force any more than a potential suicide might
be.
It's clear that our current division of drugs into legal and illegal is
arbitrary and no more contributes to solving drug problems than making all
Fords illegal would solve traffic problems (in that analogy, marijuana
might be a tricycle). Through the insight of observers like Vollmer along
with the experience of Prohibition, and models ranging from heroin
maintenance in Shreveport in the 1920s to modern experience in Switzerland
and Holland, we have strong indications that much less damage might be
done to a society willing to reach an accommodation with marijuana and to
allow "hard" drug addicts to get their drugs from doctors instead of
criminals.
***
WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW
***
Heroin
***
Cops Seize 11 Pounds of Heroin
COMMENT:
While McCaffrey's claim of drug war "success" is based on questionable
polls showing reduced numbers of users, the market grows bigger. Remember
when 5 Kilos of heroin would have made the front page? This story also ran
in the in the SF Chronicle where it was buried on page 25. Purity wasn't
mentioned, but chances are it was 3 or 4 times that of an average mid
Seventies seizure.
COPS SEIZE 11 POUNDS OF HEROIN
A San Jose man was arrested Thursday after officers found more than 11
pounds of heroin, worth an estimated $2 million on the street, hidden in
his car, Monterey County authorities said.
The discovery was made after Alejandro Torres Lara, 19, was stopped by the
California Highway Patrol at Airport Boulevard and Highway 101 in Salinas
for an alleged traffic violation. Lara gave officers permission to search
his car, and packages were found hidden in the driver's door, authorities
said.
[snip]
Source: San Jose Mercury News
Pubdate: Fri, 27 Feb 1998
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n140.a05.html
letters@sjmercury.com
http://www.sjmercury.com/
***
Marijuana
***
Court Clears Way For Closure Of Marijuana Clubs
San Francisco Judge Orders Co-Op to Stop Selling Pot
California Marijuana Club Stands Firm Against Court Rulings
COMMENT:
Late last year, Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial front-runner
Dan Lungren, with the complicity of the appellate court, contrived to shut
down buyers' clubs without actually overturning 215. On February 26, the
California Supreme Court, exhibiting a passivity which has come to
characterize their approach in recent years, declined to hear the case.
As the week progressed, it quickly became apparent that the battle would
focus on the intensely rancorous confrontation between Dan Lungren and
Dennis Peron, founder and operator of the San Francisco CBC. The New York
Times piece of March 1 provides an accurate update.
COURT CLEARS WAY FOR CLOSURE OF MARIJUANA CLUBS
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The state Supreme Court cleared the way Wednesday for
possible closure of all medical marijuana clubs in California, leaving
intact a lower-court ruling that the clubs can't sell the drug despite a
1996 voter initiative.
[snip]
The appellate ruling is now binding on trial courts statewide.
Associated Press
Pubdate: Thu, 26 Feb 1998
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n133.a04.html
SAN FRANCISCO JUDGE ORDERS CO-OP TO STOP SELLING POT
Attorney general says medical marijuana club should be shut down. Founder
vows to keep operating.
SAN FRANCISCO--A Superior Court judge late Thursday ordered the Cannabis
Cultivator's Co-op to stop selling, storing or giving away medical
marijuana, but the defiant founder of the organization said he intends to
stay in business.
The brief decision by San Francisco Superior Court Judge David Garcia set
up another showdown between Dennis Peron, the club's founder, and state
Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren.
[snip]
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Contact: letters@latimes.com
Fax: 213-237-4712
Website: http://www.latimes.com/
Pubdate: February 27, 1998
Author: Maria L. La Ganga, Mary Curtius, Times Staff Writers URL:
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n138.a03.html
CALIFORNIA MARIJUANA CLUB STANDS FIRM AGAINST COURT RULINGS
By JAMES BROOKE
SAN FRANCISCO -- The advertised price was $30 for an eighth of an ounce of
"Five Star Mexican Gold," and dollar bills were exchanged at a brisk clip
Friday for plastic bags of marijuana. But, in deference to a new court
ruling barring the sale of the drug by clubs, a hastily erected sign over
the marijuana bar read: "Remuneration Station."
"We are not selling marijuana anymore," Cannabis Cultivators Club founder
Dennis Peron said Friday,...
[snip]
Not so, retorts California Attorney General Dan Lungren, a Republican
candidate for governor....
[snip]
The animus between the two men reflects how little was solved by the
referendum in November 1996, when 56 percent of voters approved the medical
use of marijuana.
[snip]
Source: New York Times
Pubdate: Sun, 1 Mar 1998
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n143.a06.html
***
Tobacco Wars
***
Time To Grow Up About Tobacco
COMMENT:
One of the things I love about the tobacco debate is that it provokes drug
prohibitionists into saying revealing things that can be turned on their
doctrine with a vengeance. Does any one have a formula for shocking them
into realizing that these statements apply equally to "drugs?"
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
FEBRUARY 25 1998
Time to Grow Up About Tobacco
Business World
By Holman W. Jenkins Jr.
It has come to be accepted across the land that tobacco executives are evil
and kept us in the dark about cigarettes.
[snip]
We've been here before. Our basic dilemma has been an unwillingness to
decide between banning tobacco or saying that smokers smoke at their own
risk. If Congress intends to do more than just raise taxes on smokers, it
will have to wrestle with this dilemma. In legislating for the industry, it
would also be legislating for the 45 million people who use its products.
[snip]
It is time for Congress to get serious.
It is not going to outlaw tobacco. That would be a boon to organized crime.
[snip]
Source: Wall Street Journal
Pubdate: Wednesday, 25 Feb 1998Author: Holman W. Jenkins Jr.
Section: Business World
Contact: editors@interactive.wsj.com
Website: http://www.wsj.com/
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n138.a10.html
***
U.S. National Drug Control Strategy
***
Gingrich: Ban Drug-Using Athletes
Crime, Punishment and Treatment
Prison Guards Indicted
COMMENT:
This melange has a common thread: all the articles are deviously linked. An
increased emphasis on drug testing is tied to prisons, then a seque is made
from prisons into a consideration of what my become a significant Dan
Lungren vulnerability - a subject of interest to all concerned with medical
marijuana or worried about who might soon inhabit the governor's mansion in
California.
The first is more of Newt's shoot from the lip. Of all possible venues,
professional sports is the least likely arena where routine testing will
take place, although the public is well aware that recreational drug use is
fairly common among athletes. Forcing them to rat out their connection is
typically Newtonian.
Califano's Op-ed is a follow-up to strategy foreshadowed by the recent CASA
"study." The intent seems to be to modernize traditional moralistic
prohibition doctrine with a social responsibility/public health twist.The
underlying premise; coerced treatment of prisoners is "efficient," is a
perversion of Caulkins' original Rand analysis on which it relies. The goal
in that study was to analyze treatment as an alternative to traditional law
enforcement and mandatory minimums, not the coerced treatment of
prohibition's expensive failures.
Lungren's vulnerability is summed up in the Chronicle editorial: his office
"investigated" (whitewashed) the shocking allegations at Corcoran. He seems
to have antagonized the Chronicle as well. Bad move, Dan.
***
GINGRICH: BAN DRUG-USING ATHLETES
WASHINGTON--All sports leagues and associations should give a one-year
suspension to any athlete testing positive for drugs and ban any athlete
who does not disclose the source of his drugs, House Speaker Newt Gingrich
is recommending.
"It seems to me you have to bear a certain responsibility as a star," the
Georgia Republican said at a news conference. He said he was asking for
players to turn in drug dealers because "we have to make life very
frightening for dealers."
[snip]
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Pubdate: Fri, 27 Feb 1998
Contact: letters@latimes.com
Fax: 213-237-4712
Website: http://www.latimes.com/
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n138.a04.html
***
CRIME, PUNISHMENT AND TREATMENT
JOSEPH A. CALIFANO
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.
[snip]
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,
[snip]
After three years studying the relationship between prison inmates and
substance abuse, l am convinced that the present system of prison and
punishment only is insane public policy.
[snip]
Source: San Mateo County Times (CA)
Pubdate: Fri, 27 Feb 1998
Contact: feedback@smctimes.com
Website: http://www.smctimes.com/
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n140.a09.html
***
FEDERAL INDICTMENTS against eight Corcoran State Prison guards for staging
gladiator fights among inmates should be just the beginning of a thorough
investigation of the California Department of Corrections.
The guards were indicted on Thursday ``despite intentional efforts on the
part of correctional and other officials to stymie, delay and obstruct our
inquiry,'' said the FBI, raising serious questions about official
misconduct that must be answered.
[snip]
Clearly, other correctional officers knew of or were involved in the staged
gladiator fights and killings besides the eight indicted guards. And who
are the officials who tried to obstruct the investigation?
Attorney General Dan Lungren, a law- and-order candidate for governor,
conducted a 10-month investigation of violence at Corcoran and filed no
criminal charges.....
[snip]
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Pubdate: Sat, 28 Feb 1998
Contact: chronletters@sfgate.com
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n141.a01.html
***
Inquiry Into Goatherd's Slaying Ends
COMMENT:
This was is the predictable "finding" in this tragedy. The only benefit
seems to be that public outcry, generated by the killing itself, has, at
least temporarily, cooled enthusiasm for an expanded domestic role in the
drug war for US armed forces. Use of the military in this role hasn't been
repudiated, nor has enthusiasm for their hemispheric use, or the training
of foreign soldiers as drug warriors
INQUIRY INTO GOATHERD'S SLAYING ENDS
WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department has closed its civil rights
investigation into the death of a Redford, Texas, teenager shot by a Marine
during a Southwest border drug patrol, a congressman said Thursday.
But Rep. Lamar S. Smith (R-Texas), who chairs the House immigration
subcommittee, said he will open an inquiry of his own into the May 1997
death of 18-year-old Esequiel Hernandez Jr.
Hernandez's family is pursuing a civil claim against the government. Smith
said Justice Department officials told him earlier this week that they had
wrapped up their civil rights investigation against Marine Cpl. Clemente
Banuelos and would take no further action.
[snip]
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Contact: letters@latimes.com
Website: http://www.latimes.com/
Pubdate: Friday, February 27, 1998
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n140.a08.html
***
International News
***
Mexican Soldiers Given U.S. Army Training as Narcotics-Busters
COMMENT:
In counterpoint to the death of an American citizen at the hands of a US
Marine "drug patrol," this news is hardly surprising. Beyond that, the need
to use the military in an anti-drug role because civilian police have
become too corrupt is farcical. Sadly, it's not at all funny, particularly
in light of an intensifying civil war in Chiapas.
MEXICAN SOLDIERS GIVEN U.S. ARMY TRAINING AS NARCOTIC BUSTERS
By Douglas Farah
and Dana Priest
Washington Post
Fort Bragg, N.C.
The U.S. Army is providing training to Mexican soldiers for the first time,
creating an elite counter-narcotics unit that U.S. officials say has become
the leading force in Mexico's fight against international drug trafficking.
The program, started 18 months ago, includes training 1,067 Mexican
officers a year at more than a dozen bases across the United States,
according to U.S. officials. In addition, the CIA is giving extensive
intelligence courses to a group of about 90 Mexican officers who will
become part of the new counter-drug force,...
[snip]
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
PubDate: 2/27/98
Contact: chronletters@sfgate.com
***
Certification -
***
Despite Objections, Clinton Administration Certifies Mexico as
Drug-Fighting Partner
NYT Editorial: Certifiably Wrong on Mexico
Colombia Sees Victory in U.S. Backing for Anti-Drug Effort
COMMENT:
It's difficult to understand how anyone familiar with this story can keep
a straight face when reading the latest official pronouncement. The New
York Times had an interesting take on Mexico; they said, in essence,
everyone knows it's a farce, but at least tell the truth. They also took a
deserved swipe at McC for his relentless gushing praise of the Mexicans.
The case for Colombia is no better than the one for Mexico, nevertheless
their rating was upgraded to the point where they can now receive US aid-
after all, what else counts?
***
DESPITE OBJECTIONS, CLINTON ADMINISTRATION CERTIFIES MEXICO..
By Douglas Farah
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, February 27, 1998; Page A33
The Clinton administration decided yesterday to certify Mexico as a partner
in combating international drug trafficking, over the objections of the
Drug Enforcement Administration and other law enforcement agencies that
argued that narcotics trafficking from Mexico is increasing and official
corruption remains rampant.
The decision came after a debate within the administration that peaked
yesterday when officials advocating certification succeeded in removing
strong criticism of Mexico from planned testimony before a Senate
subcommittee by Thomas A. Constantine, director of the DEA, who opposed
commending Mexico's anti-drug efforts.
Opponents of certification within the administration cited a secret law
enforcement intelligence memorandum on the situation in Mexico, prepared
last month and obtained by The Washington Post, that paints a relentlessly
pessimistic assessment of the country's counter-narcotics effort and
dismisses many reported gains as superficial steps.
[snip]
Source: Washington Post
Pubdate: Fri, 27 Feb 1998
Author: Douglas Farah, Washington Post Foreign Service Contact:
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm Website:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n142.a07.html
***
CERTIFIABLY WRONG ON MEXICO
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."
[snip]
Source: New York Times
Pubdate: Sat, 28 Feb 1998
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n144.a03.html
***
COLOMBIA SEES VICTORY IN U.S. BACKING FOR ANTI-DRUG EFFORT
BOGOTA, Colombia -- Colombian officials on Thursday greeted Washington's
conditional certification of their efforts to combat the flow of drugs into
the United States as a victory for their beleaguered president, Ernesto
Samper.
Samper, blamed by many Colombians who saw decertification over the last two
years as a personal rebuke to their president, used the waiver of drug
sanctions on national security grounds to vindicate his longstanding
criticism of the U.S. ratings, which are highly unpopular throughout Latin
America.
Colombia[snip]
Source: New York Times
Pubdate: Friday, 27 Feb 1998
Author: Diana Jean Schemo
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n139.a03.html
***
CANADA: HEMP TO BECOME LEGAL CROP
COMMENT:
A significant development for the American hemp industry. Canada's
relaxation of industrial hemp laws and its potential for a hemispheric hemp
monopoly will put a lot of pressure on her American trading partners to
follow suit. In the meantime, Canada will get a head start and will, once
again, profit from American prohibition.
'I'm not on marijuana -- I'm just excited,' MP says
Canadian farmers can plan to grow hemp this spring, thanks to a decision
that comes a year earlier than expected -- but, as some see it, 60 years
late.
Federal Health Minister Allan Rock told the annual meeting of the Canadian
Federation of Agriculture that, for the first time since the Second World
War, cultivation of industrial hemp will be legal nationwide early next
month.
[snip]
According to the Health Canada regulations still to be formally approved by
Mr. Rock, industrial hemp must have less than 0.3 per cent THC, which means
smoking a field of the stuff would give the users more of a headache than a
high.
"There will be minor adjustments (to the regulations) and those minor
adjustments will be reflected in the final regulations," said Derek Kent,
spokesman for the minister.
[snip]
"I am delighted that the matter is going ahead," said Senator Lorna Milne,
the Liberal member who pushed the federal government to move more quickly
with the regulations.
"This is an opportunity for Canadian farmers, unmatched in this century. It
is also proof of the effectiveness and worth of the Senate of Canada."
The value of a Canadian hemp industry is difficult to quantify, but every
year the United States imports $100 million (U.S.) of the crop annually.
It's not legal to grow hemp in the U.S. but there also is pressure there
for legalization.
"There's been a lot of interest from Americans who right now are purchasing
their hemp products from abroad -- mostly China -- and they'd love to be
able to drive it down from Canada," said Ron Schnider, of West Hemp
Enterprises Inc., a Vancouver-based firm that is helping B.C. and Alberta
farmers get licences and obtain seeds.
[snip]
Source: Ottawa Citizen (Canada)
Contact: letters@thecitizen.southam.ca
Website: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/
Pubdate: Fri, 27 February 1998
Author: Dawn Walton, The Ottawa Citizen
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n138.a11.html
***
HOT OFF THE 'NET
New York Times Comment Opportunity
The New York Times, with over a million circulation, is now featuring its
third forum on drug policy. They write:
"Here we go again. Surprisingly, the last two forums devoted to this topic
leaned heavily towards legalization. But this attitude isn't reflected in
the media or in public policy. Washington is beating the drums to step up
the war on drugs. Our borders are militarized. Constitutional guarantees
are eroding in favor of prosecutorial shortcuts. Violent crime, while
decreasing in most large cities, is on the upswing in medium-sized cities
as a result of warring drug gangs. Should we endeavor to imprison more of
the population, or is there an alternative?"
You can join the debate! If you have not registered with the NYT first go to:
http://www.nytimes.com/subscribe/help/reghelp.html and register. It is free.
Once you are registered you may join the forum by selecting Drug Policy
under National Issues on this page: http://forums.nytimes.com/comment/
***
TIP OF THE WEEK
How YOU can Help DrugSense End the "War On Drugs"
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qualified.
***
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"Even if the task is big, don't let that stop you from beginning it -- just
a part of it. Rosa Parks did a very simple thing by refusing to give up her
seat on the bus. The task of ending discrimination and freeing the hearts
and minds of the oppressed and oppressor was and is a daunting one, but
courage and simple honesty are what it takes to begin. If the larger task
does intimidate you, focus on it long enough only to prioritize the smaller
pieces. Then take the job at the top of the list and begin it." -- Jim
Downs , "The Book of Positive Qualities"
***
DS Weekly is one of the many free educational services DrugSense offers our
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you.
Editor: Tom O'Connell (tjeffoc@drugsense.org)
Senior - Editor: Mark Greer (mgreer@drugsense.org)
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[End]
to 1998 Daily News index for February 26-March 4