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Hallinan - Let The City Pass Out Pot If Clubs Close ('San Francisco Examiner'
Says San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan Will Make The Proposal
In Court Papers He Plans To File Monday In US District Court In San Francisco
In An Effort To Keep Open The City's Pot Clubs,
Under Siege By The Courts And The US Justice Department)

Subj: US CA: Hallinan: Let The City Pass Out Pot If Clubs Close
From: "Tom O'Connell" 
Date: Sun, 15 Mar 1998 13:31:34 -0500
Newshawk: "Tom O'Connell" 
Pubdate: Sun, 15 Mar 1998
Source: San Francisco Examiner
Page: A 1 - Front Page
Author: Zachary Coile Of The Examiner Staff
Contact: letters@examiner.com
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/

HALLINAN: LET THE CITY PASS OUT POT IF CLUBS CLOSE

If the federal government shuts down California's marijuana clubs, city
health workers could be called on to distribute the drug to patients who
need it, San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan said Saturday.

The former city supervisor and outspoken backer of medical marijuana made
the suggestion in court papers he plans to file Monday in U.S. District
Court in San Francisco in an effort to keep open The City's pot clubs-under
siege by the courts and the U.S. Justice Department.

Hallinan admits the idea is still in the working stages and needs more
thorough review by the health department and other city agencies.

Mitchell Katz, director of the San Francisco Health Department, said the
proposal remains "a hypothetical," but he expressed support for the concept.

"What you're hearing is that there is an absolute commitment to vigorously
make sure marijuana is available to those who need it to alleviate their
sickness," Katz said.

"If the pot clubs are forced to close, The City would look at a variety of
alternatives." he said. 'It's an energetic and courageous city. I think we
will find a way."

The proposal would be a last ditch way to preserve the intent of
Proposition 215, the initiative passed by state voters in 1996 that
legalized the cultivation and distribution of marijuana for seriously ill
patients, he said.

MUNICIPAL MAVERICK

The proposal, which would have to be approved by the Board of Supervisors,
could make San Francisco the first city in the world actively to provide
marijuana to its citizens and would continue The City's reputation as a
municipal maverick and testing ground for progressive ideas.

"I would prefer that these clubs do it, but we're throwing out alternatives
in light of what the courts appear to be saying and the lack of clarity in
the proposition itself," Hallinan said. 'We're struggling to make this
resource available to ill people."

Katz said the health department would wait for the courts to decide the
fate of the pot clubs before launching a study of the costs and logistics
of setting up a city-run marijuana operation.

Despite several recent court rulings, the status of the clubs remains up in
the air.

In December, the 1st District Court of Appeal ruled against buyers clubs,
saying a commercial outfit cannot furnish pot to the sick by claiming to be
a patient's "primary caregiver."

Prop. 215 allows patients or their primary caregivers to cultivate or
possess marijuana for medicinal use by the patient upon a doctor's
recommendation.

A state Supreme Court ruling on Feb. 25 let the appellate,court ruling stand.

IGNORED COURT ORDER

But the Cannabis Cultivators Club of San Francisco has largely ignored a
Superior Court order to block it from selling or giving away marijuana at
the club's offices.

Despite the Supreme Court's decision, founder Dennis Peron said his
position as caregiver to the club's 8,000 customers puts him within the
confines of the law. State and local law enforcement officials have not
challenged him.

Hallinan will file his friend-of-the-court brief to block a separate effort
by the Justice Department to shut down the Cannabis Cultivators Club and
five other clubs in Marin County, Oakland, Santa Cruz and Ukiah. U.S.
Attorney Michael Yamaguchi moved to close the collectives in January,
saying they violated the federal Controlled Substances Act.

A court hearing in the case is scheduled for March 24.

In the brief, Hallinan argues that closing pot clubs would force patients
with AIDS, cancer and other serious illnesses to seek marijuana on the
street, at significantly higher prices.

'What is now a reasonably well controlled, safe distribution system and one
that has generally been characterized by cooperation with city officials -
will instead devolve into a completely unregulated, and unregulatable,
public nuisance," he wrote.

CITY MIGHT DISTRIBUTE POT

If the clubs were outlawed, The City might have to distribute marijuana
itself in light of the "ill effects of forcing patients to purchase medical
marijuana on the street," he wrote.

A spokesman in Attorney General Dan Lungren's office, which has steadfastly
opposed pot clubs said the courts would likely have to determine if city
health worker could distribute marijuana.

"I can't say for certain whether a health care worker (for The City) is a
primary caregiver or not," said spokesman Matt Ross.

John Hudson, co-director of the now-defunct Flower Therapy, San Francisco
pot club that was one of the targets of the federal case, said he backs the
move to, make medical marijuana a government responsibility.

"It's because it's a health issue that's why," Hudson said. "Let' take it
out of the hands of law enforcement and put it into the hands of health
officials, where people want it."

Board of Supervisors President Barbara Kaufinan said she had not heard
Hallinan's suggestion, but said the board would seriously consider it if
pot clubs in the area were closed down.

"The board is very supportive o the public being able to have access to the
medical use of marijuana, Kaufman said. "If the district attorney is
proposing something, there is some kind of legislation and if the health
department was willing to go along with it, I think would have the board's
support."

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Laws Raising Inmate Numbers Force Debate On New Prisons
('Orange County Register' Says Californians Face A Day Of Reckoning -
State's Prison Population Has Soared To 155,000 From 35,000
A Little More Than 15 Years Ago, It Costs $22,000 To Keep An Inmate
Behind Bars For A Year, Four Times The Average Cost Of Public School Pupils,
And New Prisons Cost $250 Million -. More Than 10,000 Additional Inmates
Will Enter Prison In Each Of The Next Five Years, But There Is Room Now
For Only About 20,000 More)

Date: Sun, 15 Mar 1998 22:37:49 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar 
Subject: MN: US CA: Laws Raising Inmate Numbers Force Debate On New Prisons
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk:John W.Black
Pubdate: Sun, 15 Mar 1998
Source: Orange County Register
Section: news / page 4
Contact:(letters@link.freedom.com)
Web:(http://www.ocregister.com)
Author:Daniel M.Weintraub-Sacramento Bureau Chief
Contact:(714)664-5050, Ext. 1499; E-mail(dweintrau@aol.com)

LAWS RAISING INMATE NUMBERS FORCE DEBATE ON NEW PRISONS

Someone once asked Jesse James why he robbed banks.

"Because," the outlaw supposedly replied, "that's where the money is."

There will always be money in banks. But now, in California, the money also
is in the guys who rob banks. And kill people. And steal cars, sell drugs,
or break into houses.

Crime and criminals are the state's growth industry, right up there with
computers and biotechnology. California's prison population has soared to
155,000 from just 35,000 a little more than 15 years ago. And the
lawbreakers keep coming.

State legislators and voters clearly want to lock these people up. "Three
strikes" puts away criminals convicted of a third felony for 25 years to
life. Another new law - "10-20-life" - adds to the sentence of anyone who
uses a gun in a crime. And violent criminals no longer can get their
sentences cut in half by, as the governor says, folding shirts in the
prison laundry.

Paying the tab for this policy has not been as popular. It costs the
taxpayers $22,000 to keep an inmate behind bars for a year - four times
what we spend on the average public-school pupil. And a new prison new
costs $250 million to build, about the same as a state-of-the-art
major-league baseball park.

So we have a problem. More than 10,000 additional inmates will pour into
the prison system in each of the next five years. But we have room for only
about 20,000 more. Once the prisons are full, sometime in 1999, a federal
judge could force the state to release some of those inmates rather than
house them in overcrowded conditions.

To catch up, Gov. Pete Wilson wants to build four new prisons. That's the
traditional approach. In a more provocative move, the governor also wants
to hire private companies to lock up as believes, can be built more quickly
and run more cheaply than state lockups.

Which brings us back to the money. At least two private prison companies
are ready to jump at Wilson's offer. One firm is so eager that it is
preparing to build a central valley prison on spec - hoping that when it's
done the state will want to use it.

But not everyone likes the notion of prisons for profit - least of all the
guards who work in them now and get a better deal from the state than they
would from a private company. County sheriffs and their deputies, who run
local jails, aren't wild about the idea, either.

The sheriffs are backing a constitutional amendment that would stop state
and local government from using private firms for public safety jobs. The
measure, proposed by Sen. Bill Lockyer, a Democratic candidate for attorney
general, is likely to gain the support of the powerful state prison guards
union as well. If it clears the Legislature, it would go before voters in
November.

Lockyer's logic: Private companies aren't as accountable as government
employees. Someone given a gun by the state, he says, ought not to be
answering to a corporation's board of directors.

"It seems to me that when the use of government force is contemplated in
arresting people, incarcerating people, it's important in a democratic
society that those powers be constrained by the electorate," Lockyer said.

The private prison companies counter that the profit motive is a powerful
incentive for accountability. If they screw up, they say, they would pay
big-time, more than would some state bureaucrat in the chain of command
when a public prison has a problem.

It's a tough question that won't get any easier as the prisons fill and the
state grows more desperate. But it's one that voters may soon have to
answer.

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Zero Tolerance Adds Up To Little Sense (Op-Ed In 'Orange County Register'
By Business Ethics Professor Cites Recent Case Of Senior
At Corona Del Mar High School In California To Make The Point
That A Policy Of Automatically Expelling Students For Any Infraction
Is Needlessly Broad, Intolerant, And Inhumane In Most Cases)

Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1998 17:54:34 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)
Subject: MN: US CA: OPED: Zero Tolerance Adds Up To Little Sense
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: John W.Black
Source: Orange County Register (CA)
Contact: letters@link.freedom.com
Website: http://www.ocregister.com/
Pubdate: Sun, 15 Mar 1998
Author: Tibor Machan - Mr Machan teaches business ethics at Chapman
University and is an adviser to Freedom Communications, Inc., which
publishes the Register.

FREEDOM AT ISSUE Local high schools are looking for ways to curb and
prevent crime, drug and alcohol use on campus. An increasingly popular
weapon is a policy called "zero-tolerance," meaning any breach of a
specific rule results in expulsion, suspension or transfer to another
school. The policy approach made the headlines last month when a Corona
del Mar senior was suspended after police found what could have been
marijuana in a plastic bag in his car, during a traffic stop.

Does the punishment fit the crime? Does it have the intended effect?

Are there larger issues to consider regarding the public education system?

***

ZERO TOLERANCE ADDS UP TO LITTLE SENSE

Schools fight drugs and violence by overstepping their mandate

A zero-tolerance policy for drugs, to put it plainly, makes zero sense as a
general policy for schools. While it can do some good here and there, it is
not a panacea and its establishment helps to highlight, in yet another
instance, the trouble with public education.

These policies, mostly involving drugs and weapons, are growing in
popularity; school officials contend the approach reduces crime on campus
as well as instances of drug or alcohol abuse. The typical punishment for
an infraction is automatic expulsion, suspension or transfer to another
school.

The most recent example occurred at Corona del Mar High School, when senior
Ryan Huntsman was caught by a police officer, off campus, with trace
amounts of a substance purported to be marijuana in a plastic bag in the
car's glove box.

The officer cited Huntsman for playing his car stereo too loudly and sent a
copy of the report to school officials. The Newport-Mesa Unified School
District suspended Huntsman for five days and ordered him transferred to
another school, under its zero-tolerance policy, the Register reported.

Huntsman took the district to court and on March 3 an Orange County
Superior Court Judge ordered the Newport-Mesa Unified School District to
allow 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.

Huntsman's lawyer based his argument on the fact the school should not
have relied solely on the police report and the overriding issue was a
denial of due process to Huntsman, not the zero tolerance policy.

While the due process concern is a real one, the zero tolerance policy
itself and its proliferation among public schools should be held up for
close scrutiny.

I would like to examine the issue on two levels - first, understanding the
larger context of how Americans have come to view public education and
then, the role of a policy such as zero tolerance within that context. I
will seek to show that citizens come to accept such intrusive, even
inhumane, policies as an outgrowth of how they have come to accept public
education as the end-all answer to instruction.

During its long history, the Register has been known to have little
patience for public education. Many, even among friends and associates of
the paper, have wondered, quietly or out loud, whether this stance isn't
rather dogmatic, even simply dogged, given how well entrenched that
institution is in our midst, how vital it seems to many who work in it.

Most people are too used to the practice of government robbing Peter in
order to help some cause of Paul, a cause they find appealing and thus the
robbery seems to them kind of negligible or benign - as if the robber were
some dying person in desperate need of water or food. Nor do most people
seem to mind very much that they are being forced to send their children to
schools over the operations of which they have hardly any say. Nor do folks
want to think much about the fact that more personal involvement in the
education of their children may be obligatory, instead of farming the
matter out to politicians and bureaucrats and rarely thinking about how
their kids are brought up as far as their knowledge of the world is
concerned.

Nor do most people realize that in the history of this country, even before
its independence from England, public education was not a given. It became
public policy mainly in order to resist the open admission policies of
private schools. Yes, public education was born, in part, because local
city fathers didn't much like having white kids going to school with blacks
and native Americans.

There is something remote for most folks about considering such matters,
not to mention thinking about alternatives to state-run educational
institutions. Similarly, for many Europeans the idea that telephone and
broadcast services could be private seemed ridiculous a few years back, as
it did for most of the people of the Soviet Union that farming and other
industries could be left to private enterprise.

So that is the larger picture. If those basic, general points don't cut
much ice with folks, how about something as near to our front yards as
setting drug policies for schools that treat everyone as if he or she were
exactly like everyone else?

That is what the zero-tolerance policy amounts to now being implemented in
high schools across California, such as Corona del Mar High School, where
students are prohibited to have on them even a trace of, for example,
marijuana, even off campus where school officials would normally have no
say as to how kids should behave themselves.

Parents, in turn, have no choice as to the policy to be followed in the
schools to which they send their children because there simply is no choice
about schooling one's kids. They must go, it is the Law!

And how about that ruling last week, about schools having to assign
minority authors along with the authors of great literature - as this has
come to be identified through the trial and error process of decades and
decades of literary judgment? Why should such reading be imposed on all
students? What does "minority" have to do with literary excellence, anyway?
Maybe for some students such a reading assignment will be of benefit, very
likely not for all. But the political management of education requires that
every student be treated alike, so such policies are absurdly generalized.

Here is where it may become clear to some that private schooling is a
superior alternative for the education of their children: There can be
diversity in the policies of private schools; not all must adhere to the
dictates of the government and its often irrelevant regulations as far as
education is concerned.

It is in most cases pretty irresponsible for parents to tolerate drug use
by their children. But whether drug abuse should impel them to pull their
kids out of school should be, unless the child is becoming a menace to
others, something for them to decide and not necessarily to be commandeered
by school officials. Different schools might have different tolerance
levels, suited to different children, families, neighborhoods and cultural
traditions.

In the case of the Corana del Mar student, Ryan Huntsman, there is a good
deal of controversy about whether he even ingested marijuana, never even
mind whether such a deed need disqualify him from attending school and
making headway in his various educational endeavors.

By following the practice of establishing universal policies in an area
where attention to differences and nuances is absolutely necessary, our
public school administrators are showing how misguided the institution of
public education really is. They are demonstrating in this and many less
notorious instances that state-run education fails to do what is perhaps
most important in education, address the needs and aspirations of students
as individual human beings who cannot be interchanged with others for
administrative convenience or even some more noble purpose (e.g., "war" on
drugs).

Yes, it will seem to many that public education is simply a fixture of our
society and it is pointless to argue with it, just try to make it work. But
by its strong ties to the state, this institution renders improvement
impossible in most cases (except where it goes against its very nature as a
political entity). They will be like those who cannot think beyond their
own experience to a better alternative, who are conservative in the worst
sense of that term, stuck in the past not because the past often teaches us
but because they refuse to use their creative intelligence.

Zero-tolerance is needlessly broad, intolerant, inhumane policy in most
cases. In some cases, of course, it may serve a needed purpose. It is its
generalization to all students at all schools that makes zero sense.

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Drinking Beer Fights Cancer? - Researchers Say The Difference Is In The Hops
('Associated Press' Says Researchers At Oregon State University In Corvallis
Believe A Compound In Hops Called Flavonoids Inhibit Cancer In Two Ways)

Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1998 17:48:52 -0800 (PST)
From: bc616@scn.org (Darral Good)
To: hemp-talk@hemp.net
Subject: HT: HOPS are a member of the cannabis family.
Reply-To: bc616@scn.org
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net

When FOX NEWS ran this story at 7 am they showed college kids at a party
guzzling pitchers. SO MUCH FOR THE WAR ON SOME DRUGS!

***

Drinking Beer Fights Cancer?

Researchers Say The Difference Is In The Hops

CORVALLIS, Or., Posted 12:20 p.m. March 15, 1998 -- Drink a beer and
fight cancer?

Bottles of Beer [9] Oregon State University researchers say there's
something in hops that may help protect against cancer. Hops are used
to flavor and preserve beer.

Studies found that a compound in hops -- called flavonoids -- helped
inhibit an enzyme that can activate the cancer process. In addition,
some of the flavonoids gave a boost to another class of enzymes that
can block cancer-causing substances that already have been activated.

But the researchers warned against drinking more beer to ward off
cancer. They say if their research pans out, there may be other ways
to get the benefits, such as in a pill.

Copyright 1998 by The Associated Press

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Northwest Calendar Of Events (Washington Hemp Education Network
Alerts Northwest Hempsters To Upcoming Events,
Invites You To Submit Information About Other Events)

From: "W.H.E.N." 
To: "-Hemp Talk" 
Subject: HT: NW Calendar events?
Date: Sun, 15 Mar 1998 19:04:47 -0800
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net

I'm trying to make a more valuable NW hemp activism event calendar. E-mail
the pertinent info as far ahead of the event as possible.

Only a few events are on it now. Can any of you add anything, or make
corrections?

Here's what's on it now. Thanks, Bob_Owen

***

On Tuesday, April 21, 1998 a Hemp For Victory Forum in Seattle

Here's what I've learned so far. It's o be called HEMP for VICTORY! It's at
Seattle Unity Church, 200 Eighth Ave. North, Seattle, WA 98109. 7:00-9:30
p.m. Will show the original 1942 "Hemp for Victory" documentary.

Speakers: Jeanne Kohl, Senator; David Edwards, M.D. W.H.E.N. Medical
Director; Ken Friedman, Esq., Hemp Industry Assoc.; and Nora Callahan,
Director November Coalition.

W.H.E.N. Board member Magic Ferguson is arranging this event. E-mail her
with questions.

***

* On Saturday, May 2, 1998 a festival to benefit Seattle Hempfest

This event will take place at the Rexville Grange in Skagit County, WA. For
more information, e-mail Allison of WHEN.

* On Monday, August 10, 1998 on the steps of the Legislative
Building

HEMP Education Day! We sure can use your help to produce a good show this
year. WHEN has taken this over from Rainbow Valley. WHEN's Eve will be
working on it this year.

* On Sunday, August 23, 1998 is the Eighth (?) Annual Seattle
Hempfest (estimated attendance 50,000+) at Myrtle Edwards Park

If you are a NW Hempster (or want to spy), rain or shine attendance is
simply a must.

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Marines Repairing Road, Image ('Dallas Morning News'
Notes US Marines Are Back On The Rio Grande
Near The Texas Border Community Where A Camouflaged Marine
Killed A Teenage Goatherder Last Year - Hundreds Of Marines
Are Now Trying To Carry Out A Public Relations Effort
While Building A Road To Facilitate Illegal Drug Interdiction)

Date: Sun, 15 Mar 1998 13:57:00 -0500
To: DrugSense News Service 
From: Richard Lake 
Subject: MN: US TX: Marines Repairing Road, Image
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: adbryan@onramp.net
Source: Dallas Morning News
Author: David LaGesse, The Dallas Morning News
Pubdate: Sun, 15 Mar 1998
Contact: letterstoeditor@dallasnews.com
Website: http://www.dallasnews.com

MARINES REPAIRING ROAD, IMAGE

Border Residents Wary After Teen's Death Despite Aid In War On Drugs

CANDELARIA, Texas - The Marines have come to this little town on the Rio
Grande to repair a local road - and their local image.

It was just an hour's drive from here that a Marine last year fatally shot
a teenager as he herded his family's goats. Now 200 troops have returned
unarmed, save for the bulldozers and graders they'll use on the gravel road
north of town.

They've camped next to the town's school and flung up a giant Quonset hut
the school can keep and that teachers hope to use as a cafeteria. The
soldiers help in lessons and join the kids each morning in pledging
allegiance to the flag.

It's been a treat for the students, teachers say.

"You should see how excited the kids get," said Johnny Chambers, head
teacher in Candelaria. "They love to read their lessons to the Marines."

But many residents eye the troops nervously. They resent that even remote
Candelaria, once described as the end of a road to nowhere, can't escape
the national angst about drugs and illegal immigration.

"A lot of us came here to get away from everything, and now we feel like
we've been invaded," said Janet Hinds, a secretary at Candelaria's school.
"The drug war is changing the whole nature of the area."

Feelings are running high along the Rio Grande, a small river that is more
of an inconvenience to local residents than an international boundary.
People share stores, mailboxes and even schools with friends and relatives
across the border.

Now the drug war has arrived in force, bringing fast change to an area
that's used to little.

A couple of hundred Marines can't help but create a fuss in a town with a
two-room school and no store, and where most of the 60 residents come from
a handful of families.

About 500 Marines will work in the area, with about 200 present at any one
time. They're part of a national effort by the Pentagon to support police
fighting drug traffickers. They came at the invitation of the Border Patrol
to rebuild a river road that snakes north of Candelaria but is almost
impassable now.

Their main adversary is a big piece of granite just north of town. The
route becomes little more than a trail that disappears into mud alongside
the bluff, where the river frequently floods.

Planners now call it the Bi-National Friendship Road.

One unit suggested dynamiting the bluff. That wasn't going to fly with the
locals, said Maj. Ruben Garza, the project's chief planner.

"We could've been blasting for months," he said with a smile.

The Marines elected instead to cut two miles of new road around the back of
the bluff, part of the rugged terrain of West Texas. Border agents say the
road will help them guard an area long known for smuggling items from
tequila to blue jeans and more recently cocaine and marijuana.

The troops will open 42 miles of river road. Without the access, agents say
they largely depend on catching smugglers and undocumented immigrants
farther inland - as they approach U.S. 90, a hike of about 24 hours to the
east.

STIRRING UNEASE

Marine officers say they know their presence stirs unease, particularly
after the death last May of Esequiel Hernandez, an 18-year-old shot by a
Marine on foot patrol near Redford.

The incident focused attention on the Pentagon's border role. After the
Redford shooting, policy-makers suspended the reconnaissance patrols and
are expected to cancel them altogether.

The military's biggest task was and remains construction, mostly roads and
fences. The Pentagon also provides intelligence, air reconnaissance,
transportation and training for anti-drug operations around the country.

It's an appropriate mission for the military, said Brig. Gen. James J.
Lovelace, commander of Joint Task Force 6 in El Paso. A former Army prison
houses the 170-person command in the outlying desert of Fort Bliss, a
sprawling base at the edge of El Paso.

"I've got more requests for support than I have money to provide it," Gen.
Lovelace said. "We have skills and resources that are unavailable elsewhere."

Federal law prohibits soldiers from making arrests, so the military only
works in tandem with civilian police agencies. The task force also doesn't
initiate its operations along the border.

A civilian council sifts through requests for task force help, which must
relate to the drug fight. Military coordinators then find units willing to
volunteer for the assignments, and the task force pays for what amounts to
a training opportunity.

FORMERLY POPULAR

Before they were suspended because of the Redford shooting, the military's
reconnaissance patrols were among its most popular operations. Undermanned
Border Patrol units liked the help in watching miles of frontier.

The Marfa sector, which includes Candelaria and Redford, covers 420 miles
of the Rio Grande from the east side of Big Bend National Park nearly to El
Paso. It works with 127 agents on three shifts.

"We really can't cover much of the border," said Jerry Agan, the Border
Patrol's deputy chief for the sector.

"The military's always been a big player with us out here in the war on
drugs."

Four Marines patrolled near Redford last May at the request of the Border
Patrol. Their leader shot Mr. Hernandez after the youth fired at the
camouflaged soldiers, and was preparing to shoot again, the Marines said.

Federal and state grand juries heard evidence and declined to file charges
against the Marines. But a public outcry arose against the armed patrols.

"There's still some sensitivity out there about Marines on the border," Mr.
Agan said.

So besides building a road, the Marines have a public affairs mission, he
said. "We think they've done a great job."

Some landowners on the route voiced initial concerns about the work. But
planners say the project hasn't met the kind of opposition aimed at a
similar road project near Laredo, which faces a suit filed by environmental
and other groups.

Presidio County residents raised questions at public hearings as well. "But
nobody left the meetings with serious objections," said County Judge Jake
Brisbin Jr.

Nonetheless, it's a gamble - the risk of another incident vs. the value of
a new road, he said.

"I think it's a risk worth taking."

BROAD BENEFITS

The county gets a free road; the Border Patrol is paying for the materials;
and the military is providing the manpower. Several Marine units, including
reserves from Wisconsin and Minnesota, jumped at the chance to come to the
sunshine of West Texas in the dead of winter.

It's experience for engineering units that rarely get to practice their
roadwork, said Maj. Don Lumpert, who's brought a team from Camp Pendleton
in California.

"We might get to fix some roads here and there on the base, but that's
about it."

The project isn't without its risks for the military. Troops at the Laredo
project are building their road within sight of traffickers across the
border. Drug agents learned of threats to open fire at the soldiers,
raising security concerns there and upriver at Candelaria.

Because the troops are unarmed, a couple of Border Patrol agents have
joined what's called Camp Candelaria. The agents sleep in a large
recreational vehicle seized from traffickers.

Their presence alone makes some residents nervous. Most of the students at
Candelaria's school are legal residents, but most of their mothers aren't,
said Ms. Hinds, the school secretary.

So far, the agents and Marines haven't bothered Mexicans who regularly
cross the river to collect mail and shop at the store down the road, said
Pilar Avila, 32.

"We're not used to having agents here all the time," she said. "They
usually come and go."

Still, some locals bemoan the loss of isolation. Sitting at the end of a
dead-end spur gained Candelaria a little notoriety. Texas Monthly magazine
called it "The Road to Nowhere" in an ode last fall to its rugged beauty.

The presence of troops has made everyone nervous about the future, said Jim
Blumberg, an area rancher.

That tension won't completely dissipate even after the soldiers leave, he
said. "We'll get agents running up and down this road and then the tourists
will discover it."

That isn't entirely bad, said Mr. Brisbin, the county judge. The towns
along the river were dying - Candelaria lost its cotton gin and then its
only store years ago.

"I bet it'll have a new store within a year," he said. "It'll be good to
have cars traveling that road."

(c) 1998 The Dallas Morning News

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

Task Force On Crime To Approve Crackdown On Gangs
('Milwaukee Journal Sentinel' Says The Youth Crime And Violence Task Force
In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, On Monday Will Recommend Approval Of A Three-Year,
$21 Million Effort To Crack Down On Violent Gangs And Drug Traffickers,
Establish After-School Safe Havens And Expand Neighborhood Anti-Crime
Activities)

Date: Sun, 15 Mar 1998 13:50:06 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar 
Subject: MN: US WI: Task Force On Crime To Approve Crackdown On Gangs
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: "Frank S. World" 
Pubdate: Sun, 15 Mar 1998
Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI)
Author: Georgia Pabst of the Journal Sentinel staff
Contact: jsedit@onwis.com
Website: http://www.jsonline.com/
Fax: (414) 224-8280

TASK FORCE ON CRIME TO APPROVE CRACKDOWN ON GANGS

Milwaukee's Youth Crime and Violence Task Force on Monday will recommend
approval of a three-year, $21 million effort to crack down on violent gangs
and drug traffickers, establish after-school safe havens and expand
neighborhood anti-crime activities.

The recommendations are part of a report compiled by the task force, which
includes representatives from government, business, law enforcement and
community and school agencies and has been meeting since January. The
report is to be presented at a task force meeting Monday.

"This proposal represents a communitywide commitment to stop crime where it
happens, and to keep our kids safe and out of trouble by keeping them off
the streets and involved in educational activities," Sen. Herb Kohl
(D-Wis.), who spearheaded the task force, said in a written statement.

The task force recommendations are based on programs that already have
succeeded in other cities, such as Boston, the report says.

Murders in Boston have been reduced from 150 to 70 a year, with only one
juvenile gunshot homicide in the past 2 1/2 years, under a similar,
coordinated community approach. In Milwaukee, neighborhoods in the Weed &
Seed program experienced a 47% reduction in violent felonies.

The key to the successful programs was that they provided a "comprehensive,
proactive, collaborative effort" to reduce violent crime and violence and
create a more positive environment for children and teens, the report says.
"The issue is not whether these strategies work. The issue is whether we as
a community have the desire and will to commit the resources necessary to
make this happen."

The task force proposal would cost at least $7 million a year for three
years and would include:

Law enforcement initiatives: The report estimates an annual cost of $2.5
million. Milwaukee County already has received a $3 million federal High
Intensity Drug Trafficking Area grant, which is renewable for two
additional years. The grant, which recognizes that this is a principal
center of drug distribution in Wisconsin, will provide the resources for a
coalition of local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to target
major drug dealers and violent gangs.

Safe havens: Because national studies have shown that youths are most
likely to get into trouble and commit crimes between 3 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.,
the report calls for a network of 50 safe havens to be established by
September, at an estimated cost of $3.2 million a year.

The safe havens would provide after-school and weekend educational, social
and recreational activities for several thousand youths, in an effort to
reduce crime, help students with school performance and seek to reduce the
dropout rate. These havens would operate through a collaborative effort of
Milwaukee Public Schools, the Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCA and other
neighborhood agencies that serve youth.

Anti-crime efforts: An estimated $1.3 million a year would be needed to
establish and run an anti-crime network that would help neighborhoods
organize and work closely with law enforcement and the safe havens to fight
crime and promote safety. Milwaukee's Social Development Commission, which
would undertake the anti-crime activities, already has received a $650,000
grant from the state, which would be used to hire 12 neighborhood
organizers.

The report also recommends promoting the healthy development of at-risk
youth and families through substance-abuse prevention and treatment, gang
diversion, violence prevention and family violence prevention programs.

"Twenty-one million dollars over three years may sound like a lot of money,
but the cost of not implementing these recommendations will be far, far
greater," U.S. Attorney Thomas P. Schneider said in a written statement.

It's hoped that some of the needed funds will come from state and federal
sources. For example, Gov. Tommy Thompson has included $2.5 million for
safe havens in his proposed budget, Schneider said.

President Clinton also has called for funding for after-school programs.

But the report also makes it clear that "without significant private sector
support these recommendations simply cannot be implemented."

Robert H. Milbourne, president of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, said the
work of the task force and its recommendations were exciting and showed a
comprehensive attack on the problem of violence.

"The business community will play a major role in the implementation of
these recommendations," he said in a written statement.

In addition to Kohl, other members of Wisconsin's congressional delegation
expressed support for the recommendations.

"I would rather have kids shooting basketballs than shooting each other, or
pushing computer keys, rather than drugs," said Rep. Tom Barrett
(D-Milwaukee).

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

Nice Guys Finish Dead - A Review Of 'Twilight On The Line'
('New York Times Book Review' Describes 'Twilight On The Line -
Underworlds And Politics At The US-Mexican Border,' By Sebastian Rotella,
As A Vivid Study Of Immigration, Crime And Graft)

Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 15:36:38 +0000
To: press@drugtext.nl, editor@mapinc.org, drctalk@drcnet.org
From: Peter Webster 
Subject: ART: NICE GUYS FINISH DEAD
Newshawk: Peter Webster
Source: New York Times Book Review
Pubdate: March 15 1998
Author: Richard Rayner

New York Times Book Review, March 15 1998
NICE GUYS FINISH DEAD
a review of:

TWILIGHT ON THE LINE
Underworlds and Politics at the U.S.-Mexican Border.
By Sebastian Rotella. 320 pp. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. $25.

By Richard Rayner

EARLY in this vivid study of immigration, crime and graft at the Mexican
border, Sebastian Rotella makes the point that the headlong growth in the
l990's of the drug trade in Mexico, and in Baja California in particular,
was spurred by an American success story. When the Drug Enforcement
Administration blocked Florida as the prime highway for cocaine, the
Colombian cartels responded by expanding their partnership with some of
their old friends in Mexico, who offered not only a network already
established through their traditional traffic in heroin and marijuana, but
a long and vulnerable land border with the United States. The Mexican drug
barons began receiving payment in cocaine instead of cash, and the
Colombians were forced to cede sales turf in Texas, along the East Coast
and especially in California itself. "Soon the Mexican mafias were
supplying 70 percent of the cocaine consumed- yearly in the United States,"
Rotella writes, "were earning between $10 billion and $30 billion a year in
profits and, according to a study by the University of Guadalajara, were
spending $500 million a year exclusively on the bribery of public officials
in Mexico. That figure was roughly double the entire budget of the Mexican
federal attorney general's office and federal police."

There, in brute outline, is the ecology of an illegal marketplace that at
times has turned a country's entire social order into an- absurd theater of
murder: "The state police, in league with drug lords, were accused of
killing a federal commander in a shootout. An assassin had killed the
presidential candidate, whose own campaign guards were suspected in the
assassination. The federal police, in league with drug lords, were
suspected of killing the city police chief. The federal police had arrested
the deputy state attorney general and charged him with corruption."

Yes, there are men honest and true in Mexico, but they tend not to' live
very long. Nice guys finish not last, but dead. Rotella, the Los Angeles
Times bureau chief for Latin America, reprises in detail two of the more
famous cases, the assassination of presidential front-runner Luis Donaldo
Colosio in March 1994, and the surreal and furious firefight that left a
Roman Catholic cardinal bleeding his life away at the Guadalajara airport
in May 1993, a crime for which a group of San Diego homeboys, in way over
their heads, became the fall guys. The leader of that group, David Barr6n
Corona---a trusted associate of Ramon Arellano FeLix, one of two brothers
who control the Tijuana cartel, whose life he saved in a gunfight in a
Puerto Vallarta disco---was killed only a few weeks ago, not by the the
strong arm of justice but accidentally by one of his own crew during an
attempted hit on a Tijuana journalist. This is a world that uncannily
resembles an American gangster movie because, to some extent, it imitates
one. Al Pacino's white-suited Tony Montana, the hero of Oliver Stone's
remake of "Scarface," is a role model to many of these guys, a poster on
the bedroom wall, an icon along with others that Rotella lists here: the
AK-47, the HarleyDavidson and the Virgin of Guadalupe (the patron saint of
Mexico, but so popular in California, the joke goes, that they've given her
a green card).

Rotella delves into some less familiar material. Hodin Gutierrez Rico---a
special prosecutor appointed to investigate the assassinatit)n of Federico
Benitez, the inexperienced, crusading, honest and therefore short-lived
Tijuana director of public safety---tells Rotella he's fighting three
enernies: the state police, the federal police and the criminals. It would
be Monty Python were it not so tragic. Gutierrez returns home one night
with his wife and daughter, and his investigations are brought to an abrupt
and familiar close: "There were four of them; apparently they were ordered
to physically destroy their victim, not just to murder him. They fired more
than 120 rounds with automatic rifles. Then they climbed into a van and ran
over the corpse, mangling it in the street beneath the wheels."

Rotella offers no prescriptions. It's not clear that there are any in a
country where violent fact far outstrips the grossest fiction and the truth
is as elusive as one of those desirable black Chevrolet Suburbans that tend
to get stolen in San Diego for use in murders south of the border, after
which they are dumped back in El Norte. There's even a ranchera song
engagingly titled "The Suburban of Death," the equivalent of gangsta rap:
"The Suburban of Death is what they call it everywhere / And Customs and
soldiers can't stop it / When the federales see it, they better beware."

In Mexico the political system has been subverted as well as corrupted.
That happened not only because organized crime has the support of
politicians but because, as the political scientist Jorge Castafieda
observed, the former President of Mexico, Carlos Salinas de Gortari,
"refused to substitute the old ways with new, democratic ones," and the
Mexicans "are faced with the worst of all possible worlds: the old system
in place but out of sync and no new system around to keep things rolling."
Mexico's current desperate fight is against becoming what he calls "a
narcocracy."

Intertwined with all this is the struggle of emigrants who wish to leave a
bad place and go to a better one---the always seductive America, which
continues to need and demand their cheap services, whether as fruit
pickers-, day laborers, gardeners, busboys or even as the teen-age or
preteen prostitutes who still haunt Balboa Park in downtown San Diego.

Rotella accurately observes that while the Border Patrol in the United
States has been to some extent successful in stemming the flow of illegals
at some of the easiest and most-used entry points, like Imperial Beach or
Smuggler's Canyon near San Diego, the effect has been to push would-be
border-crossers farther east, where the terrain is much more difficult to
negotiate and where they fall into the arms of organized criminals who
offer better, and more expensive, facilities for the journey. The
consequences of tHis will play out in the years to come. Tecate, not long
ago a small border town, is already transforming itself into a new Tijuana.

THE border is big and strange news these days, and while Rotella has an
occasional tendency to write as if he's working up a head of steam for the
bad Hemingway competition ("Hunt, an Air Force veteran of Irish-Portuguese
descent, had a Rhode Island accent, the build of a linebacker, and the
mustache of a genial walrusi'), he brings its story alive with dense and
concrete detail. His Aast and most extraordinary chapter, "The Little
Village of Alberto Duarte," paints a picture of life in the Baja California
state penitentiary in Tijuana. It is "a penal institution invented jointly
by Dickens, Kafka and Garcia Marquez," where inmates live with their wives
and children. That is an odd but pragmatic arrangement, and it works until,
almost inevitably, the liberal prison governor, Alberto Duarte, is murdered
by two heroin-high former inmates, one of whom then falls asleep at the
scene Rotella describes the border as a "magical place.'? I guess it can
be. He also makes a convincing case that it's a hellish one.

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

Mexico's Military Purchases From US Soar - Report ('Reuters' Says
'La Jornada' Newspaper Has Quoted Official US Government Documents
Showing That US Military Sales To Mexico Increased More Than 500 Percent
In One Year, From $4.8 Million In 1996 To $28 Million In 1997 -
Though Colombia And Venezuela Still Buy More)

Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1998 15:55:25 EST
Originator: drctalk@drcnet.org
Sender: drctalk@drcnet.org
From: Anti-Prohibition Lg 
To: Multiple recipients of list 
Subject: Reuters, Mex's Military Purchases from U.S. Soar

Mexico's military purchases from U.S. soar -report

MEXICO CITY, March 15 (Reuters) - Mexico's military purchases from the United
States increased sharply in 1997, along with procurement from private sources,
La Jornada newspaper reported on Sunday.

Citing official U.S. government documents, La Jornada said U.S. Foreign
Military Sales (FMS) to Mexico rose to $28 million in 1997 from $4.8 million
the year before.

The Mexican Defense Ministry had no comment on the report.

La Jornada said U.S. officials had no details of the military supplies sold
last year, but in 1996 the shopping list included mainly communications
equipment, trucks and aircraft parts.

The purchases placed Mexico third behind Colombia and Venezuela in terms of
Latin American buyers of military supplies from Washington, the paper said.

The newspaper said State Department officials had also confirmed that sales of
military supplies to Mexico by private companies totaled at least $12 million
last year.

In addition to commercial trade, the Mexican army acquired 73 helicopters and
is expected to receive considerable amounts of machine gun ammunition this
year under a U.S. program to hand excess equipment over to its allies.

Experts say the Mexican army has grown quickly in size and power since
President Ernesto Zedillo took office in December 1994, leading the fight
against everything from drug trafficking to guerrillas and common crime.
Spending on the military doubled between 1995 and 1998.

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

Sanctimonious Pot Smokers (Letter To Editor Of 'Victoria Times'
In British Columbia Says Heroin Users And Other 'Social Outcasts'
Should Have Rights, Too)

Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 13:19:42 -0500
To: DrugSense News Service 
From: Richard Lake 
Subject: MN: Canada: PUB LTE: (no title)
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Alan Randell
Pubdate: March 15, 1998
Source: Victoria Times Colonist (B.C.)
Contact: timesc@interlink.bc.ca

Daniel Tourigny's letter Feb. 27 would have been a wonderful letter if only
Tourigny had not implied that Ian Hunter, proprietor of the Sacred Herb
store, should be supported all the more because he is "one of the vast
majority of pot smokers who aren't social outcasts who end up dying in a
gutter from a heroin overdose."

My 19-year-old son died in 1993 after ingesting street heroin. Why should
we not support the right of "social outcasts" to safe, clean, legal heroin?

I get so weary of those sanctimonious pot smokers sometimes.

Alan Randell

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

Bumper Pot Crops Keep 'Green Team' Busy ('Calgary Herald'
Notes That Ninety Percent Of Busts For Indoor Marijuana Cultivation
Are Due To Informers - Recent Canadian Legislation Allows Police To Seize
Money And Other 'Gains,' Which Courts Can Forfeit
To Provincial 'Crime Prevention' Campaigns Upon Conviction)

From: Debbie Harper3 
To: mattalk 
Cc: MAP 
Subject: More "HIT Team"
Date: Sunday, March 15, 1998 12:44 PM

Calgary Herald
letters@theherald.southam.ca

CRIME AND COMMUNITIES
PUB DATE: Mar.15,1998 (A6)

Bumper pot crops keep "Green Team" busy

Sasha Naghy - Calgary Herald

The property room of the Calgary Police Service is filled with the
overwhelming smell of marijuana.

Three large garbage bags sit on a table overflowing with the proceeds of a
home grown industry that is sprouting across Calgary.

The odor is a sign that in the war against drugs, Calgary police have scored
a hit. Drug detectives know, however that there's always another harvest
coming from Calgary's underground marijuana economy.

The recent discovery of marijuana, with a street value of more than
$560,000, at a Whitehorn area home in the northeast illustrates the
difficulty police have in tracking drug growing operations.

They exist in neighbourhoods like yours and mine. It could be happening next
door, or down the street.

Think your community is immune to the problem?

Think again.

"They are all over the place, that's the reality", says Staff Sgt. Mike
Cullen of the police drug unit. "Rentals. Owners. It doesn't matter."

Police rely on tips from the public to help expose marijuana growing
operations, says Det. Jeff Plimmer.

Ninety percent of drug busts come from tips. Some are turncoats, people who
know there are drugs on the inside. But more often it is neighbors who feel
something illegal is going on.

Plimmer says there are some sure signs that you may be living next to a
marijuana merchant. He advises:

- Look for the electricity meter in the back to be altered, which is a sign
that the grower is bypassing electricity to power the operation;

-Look for heavy condensation on windows;

-Look for basement windows to be covered up at all times;

-Look to see if the home doesn't look lived in, yet there's no end of
visitors.

"You just never know what your neighbours are doing", says Primmer.

A house owner should be extra vigilant to avoid renting to potential
marijuana growers, adds Cullen.

"Aside from the damage they do, drilling through the basement to bypass the
meter, they cause tremendous structural damage to the home from the
constant heavy humidity used to grow the plants."

The drug unit's goal is to make a large dent in the marijuana trade in
Calgary by seizing $10 million worth of the illegal drug this year. But
street hardened cops suggest that even $10 million is probably a drop in
the bucket.

Recent federal Proceeds of Crime legislation has provided police with a new
tool in the fight. The new law allows police to seize - and the courts to
order forfeit upon conviction - money and other gains from criminal
enterprises.

The money recovered from the homes goes to the province, and is destined for
crime prevention, not enforcement.

It's a sore point among members of the marijuana police- that they don't
have more bodies to shut down the growers.

"We need two-to-three times the manpower to handle the number of complaints
we get now, let alone generate our own leads," says Primmer.

The Green Team is made of two Calgary Police officers and two Mounties. The
team receives more than 400 tips a year.

If you have a concern about a home in your neighbourhood, call Calgary
police at 266-1234, or the drug unit at 268-8388 or through Crimestoppers
at 262-8477.

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

Cannabis Campaign - Two Out Of Three New MPs Favour Drugs Law Review
(Britain's 'Independent On Sunday' Continues Its Weekly Push For Reform
Of Marijuana Laws With An Article About A New Survey
Of Members Of Parliament, Which Found Only 31 Per Cent Of The 243 MPs
Who Make Up The New 1997 Intake - Average Age 43 - Were Against
A Royal Commission To Review The Current Drugs Laws
While 65 Per Cent Said They Were In Favour)

Date: Sun, 15 Mar 1998 08:42:36 -0500
To: DrugSense News Service 
From: Richard Lake 
Subject: MN: UK: Cannabis Campaign: Two Out Of Three New Mps Favour Drugs
Law Review
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: "(Zosimos) Martin Cooke" 
Pubdate: Sun, 15 Mar 1998
Source: Independent on Sunday
Author: Graham Ball
Contact: Email: cannabis@independent.co.uk
Mail: Independent on Sunday, 1 Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London E14 5DL
England
Editors note: The IoS Cannabis Campaign has web pages at
http://www.independent.co.uk/sindypot/index.htm

TWO OUT OF THREE NEW MPs FAVOUR DRUGS LAW REVIEW

Two-thirds of new MPs are in favour of setting up a Royal Commission to
look into Britain's existing drugs laws, according to a survey out today.

The same study reveals that more than one in five of those elected to
Westminster for the first time last May have used an illegal drug. In a
further revelation from the new intake, Conservative MP, David Prior, the
son of the former Northern Ireland Secretary James, now Lord Prior, has
openly admitted to smoking cannabis.

Mr Prior, the MP for North Norfolk, writing exclusively for the Independent
on Sunday, today says: "You can wear a pin-stripe suit, be utterly
conventional and still roll a joint. And, yes, I did inhale. The present
law is clearly no longer being consistently enforced and is widely ignored,
reflecting a typically British dislike of hypocrisy, dishonesty and humbug."

According to the new figures, only 31 per cent of the 243 MPs who make up
the new 1997 intake - average age 43 - were against a Royal Commission to
review the current drugs laws while 65 per cent said they were in favour.

The survey of MPs' attitudes towards drugs was carried out by London
Weekend Television for the Jonathan Dimbleby programme ,which is
broadcasting a debate on Britain's drug laws at lunchtime today.

The MPs were told their responses to the survey could be kept anonymous to
ensure that they were as frank as possible about personal drug use. Some,
including Mr Prior, boldly opted to waive their anonymity.

In addition to the 22.5 per cent of the "class of 97" admitting to illicit
personal drug use , 64 per cent confirmed that they have friends or
associates who had used illegal drugs. On the question of the present
cannabis laws, 51 per cent say they are too harsh and only 1 per cent said
they were too soft.

Established Labour MP Paul Flynn, who is campaigning for a change in the
law controlling cannabis welcomed the survey. "This is splendid news and
very surprising. In effect it means that the current prohibitionist
policies against cannabis in this country are doomed," he said.

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

Cannabis Campaign - The Tory And The Toke (Op-Ed In Britain's
'Independent On Sunday' By David Prior, The Conservative MP
For North Norfolk, Who Admits To Having Inhaled
And Wonders Why The Practice Is Still Illegal)

Date: Sun, 15 Mar 1998 08:36:57 -0500
To: DrugSense News Service 
From: Richard Lake 
Subject: MN: UK: Cannabis Campaign: OPED: The Tory And The Toke
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: "(Zosimos) Martin Cooke" 
Pubdate: Sun, 15 Mar 1998
Source: Independent on Sunday
Author: David Prior, MP, North Norfolk
Contact: cannabis@independent.co.uk

THE TORY AND THE TOKE

The Conservative MP for North Norfolk has enjoyed a joint or two in his
time - and wonders why the practice is still illegal. By DAVID PRIOR

I associate my experience with drugs (soft ones) not with Mick Jagger or
Aldous Huxley but with passing my law degree and working in a bank. You can
wear a pin-stripe suit, be utterly conventional, and still roll a joint.
And Yes, I did inhale. But that was a long time ago. I stopped sometime in
my late 20s and took up alcohol instead.

It has always seemed rather odd to me that you can have an abortion
virtually on demand (and that does raise a moral issue); smoke as many
cigarettes a day as you like, knowing that they will probably kill you
slowly; get drunk regularly and also kill yourself slowly, and possibly
others in a car accident; have heterosexual sex and no doubt soon
homosexual sex with anyone over the age of 16; but you can't smoke a joint.

This is not just odd. It is also hypocritical and dishonest. It is
interesting to note that in 1993 52 per cent of drug offenders were
cautioned by the police, while only 5 per cent were cautioned in 1983. It
would seem a certain amount of de facto decriminalisation has already taken
place. The present law is clearly no longer being consistently enforced and
is widely ignored, reflecting a typically British dislike of hypocrisy,
dishonesty and humbug.

So why the taboo? Why is intelligent discussion about the subject off
limits? I suspect it is the connection in people's minds between soft drugs
and hard drugs, especially heroin and crack. You picture your daughter as a
wretched junkie, clutching a dirty syringe, exploited by a violent,
criminal pusher. End of discussion.

I don't believe, however, that the connection is a valid one. In my own
experience, soft drugs did not lead to hard drugs. But it is true that the
same criminal dealer will supply both - he is the connection. The dealer
starts supplying you with cannabis, and gradually leads you on to something
worse, something more addictive. His livelihood depends upon your addiction.

At the moment, drugs are controlled by criminals. That should frighten
every parent in Britain at least as much as the drugs themselves. Poor
little five-year-old Dillon Hull didn't die from taking drugs - he was shot
because his step-father sold drugs and was caught up in the criminal
culture that surrounds them.

So if your daughter or granddaughter is on drugs of any kind, you are right
to be worried because not only is she a criminal but she may well be
meeting a very clever, rich, violent and persuasive dealer with a huge
interest in securing her addiction. And, there is no quality control in
this unregulated market. No guarantee that what she buys won't be impure or
adulterated, and what she uses won't be consumed by insanitary methods.

The crime surrounding drugs should not be underestimated. Worldwide, the
illicit drugs trade generates revenues estimated at some £240bn and has
some 400 million users. Its tentacles stretch even into a place like rural
north Norfolk where well over half of all property-related crime is drug
related. Overall, the Home Office estimates that £2bn worth of property is
stolen annually by drug-users.

The drugs trade would appear to be out of control and beyond the powers
even of a super power like the US. This is despite the appointment of a
Drugs Czar and a crackdown on drugs which has resulted in over 60 per cent
of federal prison inmates being inside for violating drugs laws. Illegal
drugs criminalise neighbourhoods, corrupt criminal justice systems and some
Third World governments, infect many schools and finance gangsterism and
organised crime. It is similar but worse than Prohibition - because the
stakes are higher and the trade is global.

And the hidden costs are enormous. The police, Customs and Excise and the
court systems are overwhelmed by the consequences of illegal drugs. Would
it not be better to channel some of these resources into rehabilitation and
education about drugs?

I am not part of any campaign to legalise or even decriminalise drugs, be
they hard or soft. I don't know the arguments well enough to come to a firm
decision, especially those relating to the effect of drugs on physical and
mental health. I suspect that the decriminalisation of cannabis would not
materially increase consumption, and my gut feeling is that the gains from
bringing it within the control of the law might well outweigh the
disadvantages. Certainly, there is evidence from Holland and parts of the
US to support that view.

My judgement would be a pragmatic one; it would not be philosophical or
moral. The shifting sands between John Stuart Mill and those who see the
state as the protector and arbiter of morality provide for an interesting
debate but no clear answer. My view would be based on what is best, not
what is right in some abstract libertarian sense. It would accept the
reality that drugs are with us for keeps and we can't wish them away. We
should not underestimate the problems posed by drugs for a democracy like
ours. An authoritarian approach such as that imposed by the old Soviet
Union or some Middle Eastern countries is not available to us. Nor is a
libertarian approach legalising all drugs and accepting a likely rise in
heroin addiction going to be easily acceptable to the public. But we can at
least have an open debate and bring an end to a taboo that has so clearly
failed. Closing our eyes in the hope that an evil will go away is really
not good enough. That is why I am in favour of a royal commission to look
at all the issues in a detached, informed and objective way.

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

Tory MP Calls For Cannabis Reform ('BBC News Online' Version)

Date: Sun, 15 Mar 1998 18:35:32 -0500
To: DrugSense News Service 
From: Richard Lake 
Subject: MN: UK: Wire: Tory MP Calls For Cannabis Reform
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: "(Zosimos) Martin Cooke" 
Pubdate: Sun, 15 Mar 1998
Source: BBC News Online

TORY MP CALLS FOR CANNABIS REFORM

A Conservative MP has admitted that he smoked cannabis as a young man and a
new survey suggests he is not the only politician to have done so.

David Prior, the son of former Cabinet minister James (now Lord) Prior,
said: "Yes, I did inhale".

Writing in the Independent on Sunday, which has been campaigning for the
legalisation of the drug, the North Norfolk MP said the current law was
"hypocritical and dishonest".

He wrote: "I associate my experience with drugs (soft ones) not with Mick
Jagger or Aldous Huxley but with passing my law degree and working in a bank.

"But that was a long time ago. I stopped some time in my late 20s and took
up alcohol instead."

Mr Prior said he wanted to see a royal commission set up to review the law
in a "detached, informed and objective way".

The Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Home Secretary Jack Straw - the
latter whose teenage son was cautioned for cannabis possession in January -
are both staunch opponents of legalisation.

Mr Straw told BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend that the experience of
other countries was that legalisation did not work: it was greatly
disruptive of society.

He said it was valid to differentiate between "so-called soft drugs" such
as cannabis and hard drugs such as cocaine, which did much more damage. But
there was a risk of escalating drug use.

The government would study carefully the results of existing Parliamentary
and police inquiries into drug use, he said.

However, the results of a survey suggest that most of the new crop of MPs
are more sympathetic to Mr Prior's position.

Of the 243 MPs elected for the first time last year, 22.5% told researchers
for the Jonathan Dimbleby programme on ITV that they had tried illegal
drugs. Slightly more than half the MPs, who almost all answered on
condition of anonymity, thought the current law was too harsh.

The idea of a royal commission was supported by 64%.

The newspaper quoted Labour MP Paul Flynn, who is campaigning for a change
in the law, hailing the survey's results as "splendid news and very
surprising."

"In effect it means that the current prohibitionist policies in this
country are doomed," he said.

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Cannabis Campaign - The March (Britain's 'Independent On Sunday'
Provides More Details About The March 28 Public Rally
In The Heart Of London The Newspaper Is Sponsoring
In Support Of Marijuana Decriminalisation - Volunteers Needed)

Date: Sun, 15 Mar 1998 08:24:45 -0500
To: DrugSense News Service 
From: Richard Lake 
Subject: MN: UK: Cannabis Campaign: The March
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: "(Zosimos) Martin Cooke" 
Pubdate: Sun, 15 Mar 1998
Source: Independent on Sunday
Contact: Email: cannabis@independent.co.uk
Mail: Independent on Sunday, 1 Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London E14 5DL
England
Editors note: The IoS Cannabis Campaign has web pages at
http://www.independent.co.uk/sindypot/index.htm

THE MARCH

There has been a surge of support for the Independent on Sunday
Decriminalise Cannabis Campaign march. A delegation from the European
Parliament, together with 200 supporters, has pledged to join the march,
which starts in Hyde Park at midday on Saturday 28 March and finishes with
a rally at Hyde Park.

The response from closer to home has been just as encouraging, with coach
parties organised from as far afield as Liverpool, Hull, Manchester, the
West Country, South Wales and East Anglia. But we still need your help. We
want volunteers to act as stewards or supervisors on the day. If you are
able to fill this important role your duties will be principally concerned
with ensuring crowd safety. Stewards will liaise with march organisers and
help direct the flow of people away from traffic while at the same time
ensuring that campaigners keep to the approved route through central London.

If you can act as a steward or if you plan to bring a group and want advice
on coach-parking or access for the disabled, please contact Debbie Ellis or
Chris Brown on the Cannabis March line 0181 964-2692, or fax,
0181-964-2701. Or alternatively you can access our web site at
www.independent.co.uk of the routine work such as internal post has now
gone out to agency and an outsider could be responsible.

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Alcohol Key To War On Drugs (The General Counsel To The White House Office
Of National Drug Control Policy Writes A Letter To 'The Sunday Times'
Saying Britain Can Learn From America's Zero Tolerance Approach)

Date: Sun, 15 Mar 1998 13:50:06 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar 
Subject: MN: UK: PUB LTE: Alcohol Key To War On Drugs
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: "(Zosimos) Martin Cooke" 
Source: Sunday Times (UK)
Contact: editor@sunday-times.co.uk
Pubdate: Sun, 15 Mar 1998

ALCOHOL KEY TO WAR ON DRUGS

YOU are correct in calling for a drugs policy of zero tolerance. Keith
Hellawell's plan correctly targets youth and the criminal justice
system (Editorial and News, last week).

As you said, not withstanding politically correct disbelief, drug use
in the United States is down. The use of drugs by American youth fell
dramatically between 1979 and 1992 and recent data reveals the
increase that began in 1992 has ebbed.

The key is clear and consistent messages about the reality of drug use,
including alcohol and tobacco, from educational, legal and medical
communities. Hellawell's efforts to reduce youth drug use will be thwarted
unless the Blair government is also willing to boldly attack underage
alcohol use. Research establishes that young people experiment with alcohol
and drugs together.

The United States still has a chronic drug-use problem. Recent British
data, collected regionally, show significant increases in the use of heroin
and other dangerous drugs as well. Worse news is that these users are
getting younger.

The criminal justice system cannot be the exclusive way to reach this
population, however. Addiction can only be brought down by a sustained
community based approach centred on aggressive intervention and treatment
programmes.

Edward Jurith Atlantic Fellow in Public Policy, Manchester University

(General Counsel to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy)

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Illegal Weed, Heals Body And Soul? (Transcript Of CNN World Report
On Marijuana As A Medicine In The Netherlands - Until Last Year,
The Government Tolerated The Sale Of Marijuana In Pharmacies)

Date: Tue, 24 Mar 1998 19:02:39 -0500
From: "R. Lake" 
Subject: MN: CNN World Report: Illegal Weed, Heals Body and Soul?
To: DrugSense News Service 
Organization: The Media Awareness Project of DrugSense
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: http://www.rxmarihuana.com/
Source: CNN World Report
Aired: March 15, 1998 - 2:03 p.m. ET

ILLEGAL WEED, HEALS BODY AND SOUL?

RALPH WENGE, CNN ANCHOR: In most of the developed world, medicine is based
on scientific proof, or physiology, anatomy, and biology. Treatments that
involve the spiritual or ancient tradition instead of science or frequently
called "alternative medicine."

But in many places, these so-called alternative treatments are standards
medical practice. In fact, four out of five people around the globe have
access to nothing but traditional medicine. Traditional healers come in many
forms from witch doctors to acupuncturists.

One thing they seem to have in common is an interest in healing the soul, as
well as the body.

This week we're taking a special look at how medicine is practiced
throughout the world. And we begin in Europe where some physicians are
investigating the health benefits of a drug that is illegal in most
countries.

Radio Netherlands Television reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARIANE GREEP, RADIO NETHERLANDS TELEVISION (voice-over): For years marijuana
can be bought in many soft drug coffee shops all over Holland. Although it
is by law forbidden to sell the soft drug, the government tolerates it. It
is however illegal to grow the weed on Dutch soil.

For many people, marijuana is not just a soft drug used for pleasure. For
instance, people suffering from the severe chronic illness multiple
sclerosis say they benefit tremendously by smoking marijuana to ease the
terrible pain.

Forty-six-year-old Peter Boonman is one of those people. Nine years ago
doctors found out he had progressive multiple sclerosis, a disease which
will slowly make him an invalid. Severe pains are part of this chronic
disease.

Two and a half years ago he started smoking marijuana.

PETER BOONMAN, MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS PATIENT: Marijuana is very important. It
keeps me alive. It keeps me -- it gives me energy. It gives me strength. It
gives -- it keeps me going on. Otherwise, I couldn't go on. My legs are
warm. I can eat. I feel fine in my body. I have no spasms any more. I get
strength and energy.

GREEP: it's for you -- it's the ultimate medicine?

BOONMAM: For me, it is ultimate medicine.

GREEP: Up until last year, the government also tolerated the sale of
marijuana in pharmacies. This year it is forbidden. Now a new synthetic drug
will come on the market in Holland with supposedly the same qualities as
marijuana.

MARK HAGENZIEKER, PHARMACIST: Marinol is a product which contains one
chemical substance which is the THC, a product which comes from the
marijuana plant and that can be used as a pharmaceutical product.

BOONMAN: The big industry is putting Marinol on the market. So they want to
keep making their money. And they don't make money on marijuana. Because how
you ask patent on the marijuana? You can't ask patent on the marijuana. So
they against it.

GREEP: In Holland, research has now started on the effect of marijuana on
people with MS, cancer, and AIDS.

For Peter Boonmam, the answer is already evident.

BOONMAN: The solution is legalize marijuana as a medicine.

GREEP: For Radio Netherlands Television, for CNN WORLD REPORT.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL MORRIS, SWISS TV-SRI (voice-over): Canibus, a plant which can grow
practically anywhere, even in Switzerland. But the crop contains THC, a
highly controversial substance. Since an operation on his spinal cord, Swiss
lawyer Ruedi Prerost is plagued by cramps and pains in his legs. Although
conventional medication of his relief, there's a side effect -- tiredness.

After Ruedi Prerost accepted a joint from a visiting friend in hospital, the
spasms in his legs disappeared.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RUEDI PREROST, PATIENT (through translator): That's why I asked my
neurologist if I could have the substance in its pure form and take the
smallest dose possible as a medication.

MORRIS: As part of his study at the Neurological Clinic at Zurich
University, Ruedi Prerost is given THC under medical supervision. How were
the results?

Head of the study, Professor Volker Henn.

PROF. VOLKER HENN, ZURICH UNIVERSITY: Positive because with this particular
patient, there was a clear sign of a positive effect on his physical
symptoms, by painful muscular contractions using a small enough dose to
avoid any psychogenic side effects.

MORRIS: But the study also showed that in many other cases, a higher dosage
of THC was needed producing a psychogenic effect many patients perceived as
negative. The medicinal value of canibus has been known for over 5,000
years. In China, it was used against asthma, in India against headaches and
cramps, to treat malaria and menstrual problems in Southeast Asia, in Africa
against Anthrax and depression, and in the Caribbean to fight off
tuberculosis.

Although nowadays in the United States, synthetic THC is given to patients
in exceptional cases, here in Switzerland, anyone putting crumbs of hashish
into yogurt is still acting against the law. In this case, it's being taken
by a man suffering from multiple sclerosis to ease uncontrollable spasms.

But canibus can also be smoked. Does that mean people with spastic problems
should light up?

HENN: People should certainly not all start smoking joints. Because there
are very effective drugs on the market which ease painful spasms. THC offers
a further option in treating spastic conditions. But the gap between
relieving and producing unwanted side effects is much too narrow.

MORRIS: So even after 5,000 years, the CAMPODE plant remains steeped in
mystery.

This is Michael Morris of Swiss Television and Swiss Radio International for
CNN WORLD REPORT.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(c) 1997 Cable News Network, Inc.

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[End]