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

Re - Media Alert - Eugene, Oregon (A Physician
Regrets He Won't Be At The Media Event Tomorrow
To Protest A Businessman Turned Politician Attempting To Dictate
Medical Policy)

Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 11:00:08 -0700
From: "Paul E. Smith, M.D. {SURGERY} 16-2680" (SMITHPAE@kpnwoa.mts.kpnw.org)
Subject: RE: Update-MEDIA ALERT!! Eugene, Ore
To: octa99@crrh.org
Posting-date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 17:57:00 +0000 (GMT)

Regarding the upcoming news conference with Gordon Smith on marijuana.
I am sorry I will not be able to attend. It is a sign of our relentless
progression towards fascism/socialism that a businessman turned
politician can attempt to dictate medicinal policy. It's bad enough
when doctors dictate therapy to their patients. When politicians do, it
turns farce into tragedy.

Paul E. Smith, M.D.

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

Each $1 Donated To OCTA Now Equals $4 - Petitioners Needed (Paul Stanford
Of The Oregon Cannabis Tax Act Initiative Campaign Says Deep Pockets
Have Offered To Spend Up To $10,000 Tripling Your Donation
For Signature Gatherers - URL For Online Credit Card Donations)

From: "D. Paul Stanford" (stanford@crrh.org)
Reply-To: "stanford@crrh.org" (stanford@crrh.org)
To: "'Restore Hemp!'" (octa99@crrh.org)
Subject: CnbsCL - Each $1 donated to OCTA now equals $4; petitioners needed
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 00:17:02 -0700
Organization: CRRH (PAC)
Sender: owner-cannabis-commonlaw-l@teleport.com

Our largest contributor has offered to match donations to the Oregon
Cannabis Tax Act paid petition drive 3-to-1, up to a total of $10,000.
Please donate to our campaign now! Since we pay for 3 registered Oregonian
voter's signatures per $1 donated, this means every dollar you contribute,
when multiplied by our generous benefactor, will allow us to pay our hard
working petitioners to gather 12 signatures on the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act.
We need your help now, more than ever, and your financial help now will go
farther than ever!

You can donate via our secure, encrypted credit card donation web site now
at http://www.crrh.org/credit_cards.html or send checks or money orders to
the PO Box below, made out to CRRH, or Campaign for the Restoration and
Regulation of Hemp, though we can take them for OCTA too.

If you know anyone who would like to be paid for petitioning in Oregon, we
now have enough resources to begin to put out the call far and wide:
contact us! But, of course, we need those volunteer petitions too! We even
have postage-paid, business reply envelopes now also; if you want us to
send you one, let us know.

OCTA to the ballot and beyond. Thank you!

Yours truly,
D. Paul Stanford

***

We need your help to put this important issue on the ballot in Oregon:
November 3, 1998 ballot question on the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, certified
by the Oregon Supreme Court: "Yes" vote permits state-licensed cultivation,
sale of marijuana for medical purposes and to adults.

Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp
CRRH
P.O. Box 86741
Portland, OR 97286
Phone: (503) 235-4606
Fax:(503) 235-0120
Web: http://www.crrh.org/

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

Signature Count (Attorney Paul Loney Says The Oregon Cannabis Tax Act
Initiative Campaign Has Collected 26,391 Signatures
Of The 73,261 Needed By July)

Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 09:18:43 -0700
To: octa99@crrh.org
From: blc@hevanet.com (Belmont Law Center)
Subject: Signature count

As of 13 April 1998, we have 26,391 signatures counted and stored. Thanks
and Praises. Please gather signatures and turn in the filled sheets that you
have.

Paul L

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

Gubernatorial Candidate Joins Calls To Free Todd McCormick
(Press Release From California Libertarian Party Nominee Steve Kubby)

Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 19:49:32 EDT
Originator: drctalk@drcnet.org
Sender: drctalk@drcnet.org
From: Arthur Sobey 
To: Multiple recipients of list 
Subject: Gubernatorial Candidate Joins Calls to Free Todd McCormick.

NEWS RELEASE

Kubby for Governor
P.O. Box 1012
Garden Grove, CA 92842-1012

For Release: Monday, April 13, 1998, 6:30 p.m.
Contact: Richard B. Boddie, Press Secretary
877-Go Kubby (877/465-8229)

Gubernatorial Candidate Joins Calls to Free Todd McCormick.

Los Angeles. The Libertarian Party candidate for California governor
today said Democrats and Republicans will "have blood on their hands if
they continue to use barbaric tactics to interfere with the cancer
treatment of Todd McCormick." Steve Kubby said both major political
parties are hypocrites who turned their backs on the will of California
voters who passed Prop. 215. That measure allowed sick and suffering
Californians to find relief with medical marijuana.

In a statement read to a rally for McCormick in front of the Federal
Court House in downtown Los Angeles today, Kubby said, "Dan Lungren
proves Republican leaders are hypocrites. The GOP says they believe in
states' rights, yet the GOP's top cop invited the feds to march into
California and overrule the voters."

Kubby was equally critical of Democratic Party leaders, "How often have
we heard that a woman's body is her own and no government agency should
interfere with the decisions she and her physician make for her medical
treatment. If the right to choose your own medical treatment is
precious, why turn their backs now on this man who is dying in their
custody?"

Kubby Press Secretary Richard B. Boddie said "Libertarians are unanimous
in the belief that no governmental authority has a right to interfere
with the medical choices made by patients and their medical care
providers."

Kubby joins San Francisco Mayor Willie L. Brown, Jr., in calling for the
federal government to impose a moratorium on enforcement of marijuana
laws that interfere with the locally regulated operation of cannabis
patient clubs to allow patients access to their medicine.

McCormick was arrested by federal agents in July of 1997. Since then he
has suffered severe physical and mental deterioration as the result of
his cancer. In late February, McCormick was persuaded to try Marinol, a
prescription form of THC, one of the active ingredients in medical
marijuana. While it helped a little, federal authorities issued a
warrant for his arrest because a urine test showed traces of THC, which
is a normal result of taking the legally prescribed medication.

Said Kubby, "People are suffering and dying because of the policies of
the state's two largest political parties. I'm telling you that if I'm
elected Governor, we'll tell Washington to get the heck out of
California."

***

Arthur R Sobey
Communications Director
Kubby for Governor Campaign
asobey@ncfcomm.com

K U B B Y F O R G O V E R N O R
1998 CALIFORNIA 2002
http://kubby.org

STATEWIDE CAMPAIGN OFFICE
Voice: (714) 537-9200
Fax: (714) 537-9200
Toll Free: (877) GO-KUBBY

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

Clinton Fax Number (Ask The President To Free Todd McCormick Pending Trial)

Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 21:13:15 EDT
Originator: drctalk@drcnet.org
Sender: drctalk@drcnet.org
From: ltneidow@voyager.net (Lee T. Neidow)
To: Multiple recipients of list 
Subject: Clinton Fax Number

I have written a 2 1/2 page letter to President Clinton and sent it
by FAX concerning Todd McCormick's situation.

Doing so is a bit more expensive than e-mail, but might be more inclined
to get attention. Perhaps others would consider doing likewise.

The number I used was (202) 456-2461, which I understand is one for
communicating more directly to him, as opposed to (202) 456-2883,
which is a general White House FAX number.

Lee

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

CHP Steps Up Drug Interdiction ('Associated Press' Article
In 'Orange County Register' Says The California Highway Patrol
Has A New 'Operation Pipeline' Dedicated To Catching Drug Smugglers
Using Interstate 5 To Move Drugs From California's Southern Border
To The Pacific Northwest)

Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 10:13:27 -0700
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)
Subject: MN: US CA: CHP Steps Up Drug Interdiction
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: Mon, 13 Apr 1998
Author: Steve Geissinger-The Associated Press

CHP STEPS UP DRUG INTERDICTION

Officers look for certain signs among the drivers heading up I-5 into the
Pacific Northwest.

REDDING- It seems like your basic traffic stop: A family pushing the speed
limit a bit on the highway is pulled over by a California Highway Patrol
officer.

After following the car into an Interstate 5 rest stop, Patrolman Al
Stallman saunters over to the old full-sized sedan and talks to the couple
in the front while two young boys, 3 and 5 years old, fight in the back
seat over Ritz crackers.

In his uniform, Stallman looks like a regular CHP officer.

He's not.

But then, the couple and the kids aren't what they seem either, and
Stallman - actually part of a CHP drug interdiction team - is trained to
figure that out as part of an increased effort to catch drug smugglers
using I-5 to move drugs from California's southern border to the Pacific
Northwest.

The CHP team members randomly move up and down the highway teeming with
truckers and travelers, trying to spot and stop the smugglers. So far this
year, the effort - called Operation Pipeline - has seized drugs worth more
than $118 million, including 1,200 pounds of cocaine and more than 7,000
pounds of marijuana.

The framework of Operation Pipeline has been in place for a decade, and
recent increases in drug-fighting money has allowed the state to bolster
the program.

In one bust alone last month, CHP officers found 61 pounds of cocaine worth
more than $11 million in a secret compartment of a car pulled over in
Stockton.

Today, Stallman is suspicious of this couple with the kids. Walking up to
the car, he knows only that the driver, Ines Gonzalez, was going 65 in a 55
mph zone. And despite Stallman's mild manner and polite questions, Gonzalez
is very nervous.

Too nervous, Stallman thinks. What's more, he's puzzled by Gonzalez's story
about how he is just giving a ride to the woman, Jennefer Ramos, and her
children. He has driven this woman he barely knows hundreds of miles from
Hermiston, Ore., to pick up the boys from he estranged husband in Mexicali,
Mexico, and back north to Hermiston.

There are other things that raise Stallman's suspicions, signs he won't
discuss because he doesn't want to tip off smugglers. He radios the two
other cars in the team working near Redding, 200 miles north of San
Francisco.

After Gonzalez, 23 and Ramos, 20, agree to let officers search the car, a
drug-sniffing dog draws the officers' attention to a spot under the dash.
On the other side of the dash, around the engine, they find bolts turned on
a part of the air-conditioning system that's almost never dismantled.

They peek inside. Something is hidden there.

Later at the Redding CHP station, Stallman, his boss, and a federal drug
agent tear apart the air-conditioner. Looking like grease-streaked
mechanics, they produce what might be a hardcover book tightly wrapped in
silver duct tape.

Two Shasta County undercover narcotics agents cut into the package to test
the contents. It's more than three pounds of cocaine, worth over $300,000.

Gonzalez is booked into jail on drug charges. An illegal immigrant, he
tells the officers in Spanish that he borrowed the car without knowing it
contained drugs.

In a nearby room, Ramos is uncuffed. The community college student says she
just needed a ride and Gonzalez offered one - she didn't know about the
drugs.

"I trusted him," she said. "If I had known, I would never have gone. My
babies come first."

Zachary and his little brother, Raul, are giggling as they chase each other
around the room. It's Zachary's birthday, and officers have given them toys
and candy while they question Ramos. Child protective services decides they
- and Ramos' infant at home - are well cared for.

Departing with her children for a bus station with $76 she got from
Gonzalez, Ramos says, "This is a very big lesson for me. Never again."

Officials say it isn't unusual for smugglers to use women and children
unaware of the drugs as cover.

"They use people to make it look like a family, to make the officer think
there's nothing there," says CHP Sgt. Hal Rosendahl, who runs Stallman's
team.

The couriers themselves, who get about $2,500 per round-trip, and those who
buy and resell the drugs, almost never divelge their secrets when caught.

"If they do, they are going to die or their families will die," Rosendahl says.

Other tricks include using old cars, cheaply painted, like the one Gonzalez
was driving, to blend "right into the woodwork," he said.

Inside modified cars, officers have found drugs in tires, under seats, in
gas tanks, inside false roofs, under false truck beds, in electric drawers
disguised as air bag compartments, and inside electronically controlled
compartments within bumpers.

"There's no way to tell when you're out on the road if they're carrying
dope," Rosendahl says. "It's sheer numbers. Our guys make a lot of stops.
You kiss a lot of frogs before you find a prince."

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

Recovering Addict Embraces Faith To Rebuild Shattered Life ('Sacramento Bee'
Portrays A Polydrug Abuser Trying To Recover
With The Help Of The Salvation Army)

Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 02:58:50 -0700
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)
Subject: MN: US CA: Recovering Addict Embraces Faith to Rebuild Shattered Life
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Joel W. Johnson (jwjohnson@mapinc.org)
Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)
Contact: opinion@sacbee.com
Website: http://www.sacbee.com/
Pubdate: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 Author:
Jan Ferris, Bee Staff Writer

RECOVERING ADDICT EMBRACES FAITH TO REBUILD SHATTERED LIFE

The first time Lori Brink-Fecteau met God, she was pregnant, homeless and
heavily into drugs. She knelt by her Auburn motel bed, a Salvation Army
worker at her side, and clumsily followed her in prayer. Then she handed
over her contraband.

It was a false start. Brink-Fecteau and her husband went on using for seven
years, raised their two girls on welfare and moved 12 times in a single
year. Their son's birth in November only meant Brink-Fecteau could reclaim
her addiction full time.

And she did, not finding it odd that her daughter -- all of 7 -- was
tending to her baby brother, cooking and cleaning for the family. Then she
bottomed out. Two months ago, after her husband left home, she began the
torturous process of starting over.

While the Resurrection of Jesus Christ was commemorated, Brink-Fecteau, 28,
has been undergoing her own renewal. She's leaning on her nascent Christian
faith and a Bible-based treatment plan to stay off drugs and reunify her
family.

"Before I did the drugs, I was more or less a kid. Now I have to see myself
as an adult and a mother," she said. "I'm learning who I am now."

Michelle Avey, who knelt by her side seven years ago and has prayed for
Brink-Fecteau's recovery ever since, calls it, simply, a rebirth. "It is a
new person coming out," Avey said. "Definitely."

The Salvation Army -- a charity and a 453,000-member church -- is better
known for its Christmas kettles and thrift stores than its drug and alcohol
programs. The latter, which include live-in centers in Fresno and San
Francisco, run on both a belief and a mandate that a full physical and
mental revival can't occur without spiritual help.

Her dark eyes luminous and clear and her black hair thick and shiny,
Brink-Fecteau doesn't look like the "broken spirit" Avey describes from a
few months ago when her late-night phone call came for help. But from her
fragile perch, Brink-Fecteau says, the threat of a relapse loiters nearby.

In high school, she drank, smoked pot and took acid. After she followed her
parents to Colfax and met her future husband, Brink-Fecteau turned to
methamphetamine. For years, she couldn't string her words together fast
enough to keep up with her crank-fueled high. Now she struggles to express
the most basic thoughts.

One minute she hunches her shoulders and laments, "I'm trying to live a
normal life and I don't know how." The next, she counters defiantly, "You
can fight it."

Because authorities never intervened, legal custody of her children has not
been an issue. Still, Brink-Fecteau temporarily gave up the care of her
girls to her parents to enroll in a yearlong rehabilitation plan. As her
closest friends are still using drugs, her phone book went in the trash.
And though her husband is in touch, he is living the noxious lifestyle she
struggles to put past her.

"I'm afraid that he would pull me right back in. I can't have that right
now," she said.

Had her husband not walked, Brink-Fecteau says she probably wouldn't have
sought help. But two months after he left, her sanity was slipping. She
called Avey one Friday night. The caseworker and her husband picked up the
family and took them home.

"She was crying out for help," recalled Avey, a devout Christian whose own
troubled past was similar to her young charge's. " 'Dear God, please show
me the doors.' "

Avey helped Brink-Fecteau get into the Courage House in Auburn with
Salvation Army paying part of her rent. While the thrice-weekly Narcotics
Anonymous meetings are secular, she found an additional Christian support
group at Sunrise Church.

Every Sunday, Avey and her husband take Brink-Fecteau to their church in
Grass Valley. On tougher days, she's loathe to go, though she perks up in
church and at the gathering that follows back at the Avey home.

She believed in God after her motel-room appeal, but avoided church until
she went clean. "I didn't want to disrespect Him," she said.

Brink-Fecteau spent her first sober month numb. Now, she's coming to terms
with the chaos and neglect that drove her life. Her face breaks out. She
sometimes rocks uncontrollably.

She managed the first part of her 12-step program, giving up control to a
"higher power." But she is stalled on the fourth step, which calls for
self-evaluation. Some memories are unspeakable.

"That's where my faith has to kick in, knowing that God is greater than me.
I know I can't do it alone," she said.

Brink-Fecteau calls Avey her "angel." Her mentor, in turn, never lets up,
alternating blunt, tough-love reproaches with hugs and comforting
Scriptures. Avey helped the recovering addict make a "God box" for her
prayers, a carton sealed so its contents are known only to Brink-Fecteau
and her higher power.

In Avey's prayers, the two women will open the box some day, perhaps when
Brink-Fecteau is 10 years sober and counseling other needy women. "We're
hoping there's going to be a happy ending to this," Avey said.

"It's what I dream," Brink-Fecteau replied.

Copyright 1998 The Sacramento Bee

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

Ginseng Crackdown Backfires On State ('Associated Press'
Says The Washington State Liquor Control Board Is Backing Off
Its Attempt To Ban Ginseng Extracts Containing Alcohol
After Running Afoul Of The Asian-American Community)

From: "W.H.E.N." 
To: "Talk" 
Subject: HT: Ginseng crackdown backfires on state
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 21:13:59 -0700
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net

Ginseng crackdown backfires on state
The Associated Press
04/13/98 3:08 PM Eastern

SEATTLE (AP) -- After running afoul of the Asian-American community, the
state Liquor Control Board is backing off its attempt to ban ginseng
extracts that contain alcohol.

The board issued its ban in December, following similar moves by several
East Coast states where some teen-agers fell asleep in class and others
suffered chest pains after drinking ginseng extract that contained alcohol.

But it prompted an angry reaction from Asian-American retailers, who said
it deprived them and their customers of an ancient health tradition.

"This has turned into a nightmare," said Michael Burke, the board's
supervising agent. "The scope of this is so much bigger than I first
imagined."

Ginseng is a popular, bittersweet rooty herb that users believe can cure
everything from the common cold to failing memory and impotence. Some
liquid extracts -- commonly sold at gas stations, convenience stores,
health-food stores and herbalists -- retain the alcohol that is used to
draw out and preserve the root's essence.

"Ginseng is a health supplement that we grow up with," said Richard Chang,
an ethnic Chinese immigrant from Vietnam who co-owns the Korea Ginseng
Center in Seattle's International District. "We should have the right to
consume our product from generation to generation."

"From ancient times, everybody knows ginseng gives longevity and vitality,"
agreed Sung Bo Chung, director of the Korean Trade Center in Bellevue.

Liquor board officials confirmed there have been no reported incidents of
ginseng abuse among minors in Washington. But federal officials last year
warned states about the alcohol's potential harm to people with medical
problems, and its potential abuse by minors.

Herbalists, however, said over-the-counter medicines such as cough syrup or
illegally obtained liquors would be easier and cheaper for teens who want
to abuse alcohol.

Asian-American retailers also said they don't sell ginseng to minors, and
even require prescriptions for some ginseng products.

So when liquor-board agents began visiting stores earlier this year, they
found more criticism than they expected.

"At first, the retailers and distributors were upset and confused about
it," said Joseph Kwon, a reporter for the Korea Times in Seattle. "There
were many questions."

Agents also created resentment by not researching the issue before seeking
an all-out ban, said Chang, of the Korea Ginseng Center.

"What upset me is that they did this without having the education," he
said. "I thought it was unfair."

As a result, the state has scaled back its enforcement goal, and will focus
on getting convenience stores to stop selling the cheaper varieties of
alcoholic ginseng extracts, Burke said.

"Some agents took the initiative to find the ginseng at specialized
stores," he said. "But we're really focusing on convenience stores (and gas
stations), where the products seem to serve no legitimate purpose.

"We wanted to be pro-active to prevent abuse. But we don't want to put
health-food stores out of business."

So far, state authorities have tested at least three ginseng products they
want retailers to withdraw: Panax Ginseng, Red Panax Ginseng and Dr. Chan's
flavored ginseng extracts that are not clearly marked as nonalcoholic.

"If retailers want to know if any particular product contains alcohol, they
can contact us," Burke said. "There are lots still to be tested."

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

Retrial Begins For US Lawyers Facing Drugs Charges ('Reuters'
Says Jury Selection In Miami, Florida, Began Monday In The Retrial
Of Two Former US Federal Prosecutors, Michael Abbell And William Moran,
Accused Of Trafficking In Cocaine For Colombia's Cali Drug Cartel,
After Jurors Were Stalemated In The First Trial In October)

Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 10:11:39 -0400
From: Scott Dykstra 
Organization: Citizens Against The Drug War
To: november-l@november.org
Subject: CanPat - US Lawyers facing drug charges
Sender: owner-cannabis-patriots-l@teleport.com

Prohibition affects everyone in one way or another. The fact that many
lawyers are now in the U.S. Congress is a "direct" conflict of interest.

***

03:44 PM ET 04/13/98

Retrial begins for U.S. lawyers facing drugs charges

By Patricia Zengerle

MIAMI (Reuters) - Jury selection began Monday in the retrial
of two former U.S. federal prosecutors accused of trafficking in
cocaine for Colombia's Cali drug cartel after jurors reached a
stalemate in their original trial.

In October, attorneys Michael Abbell and William Moran were
acquitted on one count of racketeering. But after a five-month
trial, the jury deadlocked and could not reach a verdict on four
other charges including conspiracy to import and distribute
cocaine and money laundering.

So attorneys on Monday began the process again, sorting
through a pool of potential jurors for a U.S. District Court
trial that both the defense and prosecution expected to be
shorter than last year's.

In a case that broadened the traditional scope of its drug
war to include defense attorneys, the government charged that
Abbell and Moran crossed a line from representing Colombia's
notorious drug gang to participating in trafficking. Four other
lawyers named in the 1995 indictment pleaded guilty to reduced
charges.

Defense attorneys said their clients were merely acting as
responsible defense lawyers.

Abbell was chief of the U.S. Justice Department's Office of
International Affairs during the Reagan administration. He later
founded a law firm specializing in criminal defense of foreign
clients, including Cali chieftains Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela and
his brother Gilberto.

Moran, a longtime criminal defense attorney in Miami, also
was a former federal prosecutor.

In the first trial, the jury also considered four other
defendants who faced charges of shipping and warehousing drugs,
with two found guilty and two cleared.

This time, the two attorneys will be tried alone, although
with different lawyers.

Moran, who has said the case has caused him financial
hardship, is representing himself with assistance from a Miami
lawyer. Abbell will be represented by two longtime criminal
defense lawyers from Washington.

Prosecutors have said they will present fewer witnesses than
the several dozen who took the stand in the first trial.

The complex trial resulted from a sweeping five-year
investigation known as Operation Cornerstone, which federal
officials said uncovered shipments of thousands of tons of
cocaine into the United States hidden in everything from fence
posts to coffee and frozen broccoli.

REUTERS

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

Ads For Drugs - 'Hucksterism' Or A Public Service?
('Milwaukee Journal Sentinel' Notes Medical Professionals Are Objecting To
Pharmaceutical Companies' Sales Tactic Of Advertising Directly To Consumers -
Already It's A $1 Billion Industry And Today's Fastest-Growing
Advertising Category)

Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 12:28:12 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar 
Subject: MN: US: Ads For Drugs: 'Hucksterism' Or A Public Service?
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: "Frank S. World" 
Pubdate: Mon, 13 Apr 1998
Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Contact: jsedit@onwis.com
Fax: (414) 224-8280
Website: http://www.jsonline.com/
Author: Joe Manning of the Journal Sentinel staff

ADS FOR DRUGS: 'HUCKSTERISM' OR A PUBLIC SERVICE?

Advertisers, Doctors Clash On The Merits Of Direct-To-Consumer Ads

They're everywhere -- on television, in magazines, in newspapers -- popping
up like spring weeds.

They're ads for prescription drugs -- about a billion dollars worth a year
in today's fastest-growing advertising category. And there seems to be no
limit to the aliments these drugs can cure: allergies, ailing hearts,
depression, herpes, high blood pressure, headaches, baldness and more.

But is the advertising of prescription drugs directly to consumers a form
of education or "snake oil hucksterism"?

Advertisers say pitching these products to the consumers provides a
valuable public service, but the practice is drawing criticism from medical
professionals. Some doctors say it interferes with the practice of
medicine, causing patients to ask for remedies that may be inappropriate.
Others fear advertising may exaggerate claims, and health insurance
executives say direct-to-consumer ads are raising health-care costs.

"Oh, yeah. Parents come in here and say, 'I want that for my kid,' " said
Dr. Thomas Kowalski, a Milwaukee pediatrician.

Parents want a drug they have seen on television or in a publication,
particularly now that allergy season has begun and the airways are filled
with commercials for Allegra or Claritin, he said.

"I spend a lot of time explaining that some particular advertised drug
won't be best for their kids," he said.

Kowalski said parents demand prescription antibiotics that keep them from
having to parcel out doses to their children at all hours of the night.

"For certain antibiotics, the ads say they need to be taken only once a
day," Kowalski said. "The problem is that any time there is convenience, it
costs you. The advertised antibiotic for your child's ear infection can
cost three times as much. There has to be a compelling (medical) reason for
me to write a more expensive prescription."

Doctors also face pressure from managed-care programs to prescribe less
expensive or generic drugs to hold down costs, he said.

"I could be de-selected by an HMO or managed care program. Is that a
conflict of interest? It could be. You always keep in mind that there is a
less costly way and aim for that," Kowalski said.

Health officials, including the American Medical Association, generally
agree they would prefer that the ads not target the general public, but
they have resigned themselves to the new practice.

An AMA survey of physicians found there can be a benefit if the ads involve
patients in their own care in such areas as smoking cessation, hypertension
or high cholesterol.

And, that's Richard McDonald's point.

"We know zip about the prescriptions we are taking," said McDonald,
managing officer with BVK / McDonald, a Milwaukee advertising firm, and one
of the early advocates for medical advertising.

He points to the 1977 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized such
advertising, saying the ruling found it informed the public and helped
decision-making by consumers.

Quoting Justice Blackmun's opinion, he said: "People will perceive their
own best interest if only they are well enough informed, and that the best
means to that end is to open the channels of communication rather than to
close them."

And McDonald agrees: "Educating people is a value to the public. The
consumer will be better able to challenge the physician, not in an
antagonistic way, but in an informed way. With more marketing and more
advertising, the consumer wins," McDonald said.

Even with recently relaxed Food and Drug Administration ad rules, McDonald
said protections are in place "to prevent a return to the snake oil days."

Eric Cohen isn't so certain. Ten years ago, he railed against
direct-to-consumer advertising in an article in The New England Journal of
Medicine, declaring prescription drug information "would be warped by
misleading commercials and hucksterism."

Today, the associate professor of medicine at the Medical College of
Wisconsin, hasn't changed his views.

"Advertising is snake oil hucksterism," Cohen said. "Advertisers are in the
business of not necessarily telling the truth. They are in the business of
selling products."

Cohen said direct marketing of prescription drugs to laymen confuses the
public and creates demand for drug use where drugs may not be appropriate.

"Advertising is not designed to educate, but to sell. A pill may not be
needed. A change in diet or lifestyle or even surgery may be more
appropriate," he said. "I don't think that advertising prescription
medicines is the right approach."

Cohen said the cost of direct advertising of prescription drugs has climbed
from $12 million 10 years ago to about $1 billion today. "Someone has to
pay for it," he said.

Greg Keuterman, a spokesman for Eli Lilly and Co., would not reveal how
much the drugmaker has spent on ads since July when it began a campaign for
the antidepressant Prozac.

But sales of Prozac, one of the most widely prescribed drugs in the world,
rose from $1.73 billion in 1996 to $2.02 billion last year.

"We are pleased with the campaign so far. We have received a lot of
positive feedback from patients and doctors who believe that the Prozac ads
are easy to read, understandable and help get patients into the doctor's
office.

"In the area of depression, there is a tremendous gap. Two-thirds of people
with depression are not receiving any treatment or appropriate treatment,"
he said.

"This campaign hopes to better the relationship between doctors and
patients and drive patients into doctors' offices if they recognize signs
of depression among themselves or friends," he said.

Keuterman said Lilly recognizes the company has a responsibility in
advertising directly to the public. He said Lilly makes sure depression is
properly depicted and the campaign is not aimed at children.

"Obviously, we are interested in selling products. That's why we are in the
business. But so many people are not receiving the treatment they need," he
said.

Thomas Hefty, chairman of Blue Cross & Blue Shield United of Wisconsin, and
Larry Rambo, president of Prime Care Health Care Inc., said they feel
direct-to-consumer advertising creates serious problems for patient and
physician alike.

Drug use is best decided by the treating physician, Rambo said.

Hefty said Blue Cross' pharmaceutical costs are the fastest rising part of
his company's expenses. Prescription drug use last year was up 5%, and drug
costs rose 13%.

"Often times, there are many alternative drugs that are appropriate within
any given class, and the consumer should not be misled into believing one
is superior to another without understanding all of the implications of
specific drugs," Rambo said.

"I do not believe that these are serving a positive purpose for the
American consumer. When people ask for these drugs, the doc has to justify
not doing something rather than justify doing something," Rambo said.

Said Hefty: "We are disappointed to see the pharmaceutical companies
engaging in these practices. It raises the costs and interferes in the
physician-patient relationship. They are trying to improve their profit
margins."

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

Focus On Teens Fails (Op-Ed By 'Boston Globe' Columnist In 'Oakland Tribune'
Notes Teens Are Smoking More Tobacco Despite The Most Intensive Campaign
In The History Of The World, Showing That Nothing Makes Tobacco More Alluring
To Adolescents Than Hysterical Grown-Ups Admonishing Them Not To Smoke)

Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 11:59:35 -0700
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)
Subject: MN: US: OPED: Focus on Teens Fails
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Jerry Sutliff
Source: Oakland Tribune
Contact: triblet@angnewspapers.com
Pubdate: Mon, 13 Apr 1998
Author: Jeff Jacoby writes for the Boston Globe. His e-mail address is
jacoby@globe.com

FOCUS ON TEENS TAILS

T0 win the War on Tobacco, antismoking strategists have long insisted, the
focus must be on teens.

Smokers, after all, start young. According to the surgeon general's 1994
report, the average age at which American smokers first try cigarettes is
14=. The average age at which they become daily smokers is 17=. "Nicotine
addiction is a pediatric disease that often begins at 12, 13, and 14," says
David Kessler, a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration
and staunch enemy of the tobacco industry, "only to manifest itself at 16
and 17, when these children find they cannot quit."

To fight this "pediatric disease," the sale of cigarettes to minors has
been made illegal In every state. Tobacco ads have been banned from
television and radio, and eliminated from publications and shows aimed
primarily at young people. Joe Camel, harshly (and probably inaccurately)
condemned as seductive to children. has been dropped from R.J. Reynolds's
advertising.

The National Center for Tobacco-Free Kids has raised more than $32 million
since 1996. The proposed tobacco settlement has drawn intense coverage.
Among its requirements: that cigarette companies supply $500 million a year
to pay for anti-smoking education programs, that cigarette vending machines
be banned everywhere, and that all tobacco bill-boards and promotional
materials and product placement in movies and TV shows be forbidden.

Minors, meanwhile, have been bombarded with anti-smoking messages. The
warning labels on cigarette packs have been made more explicit and
alarming. In states as diverse as Mizona, California, and Massachusetts,
higher cigarette taxes have gone to pay for lavish anti-smoking campaigns.
Many school districts have altered their health curricula to include
graphic lessons on the dangers of tobacco.

In short, American kids have been exposed in recent years to the most
intense antismoking campaign in history. The result?

An explosion of teen-age smoking.

Between 1991 and 1997, smoking rates among high school students jumped from
27.5 percent to 36.4 percent --a jolting one-third increase. According to
figures just released by the federal Centers for Disease Control, 40
percent of white high school girls say they have smoked a cigarette at
least once in the past 30 days; 20 percent say they smoke frequently.
African-American kids are smoking cigarettes at a rate 80 percent greater
than they were seven years ago. Add in cigars and chewing tobacco, and more
than half 0# all white teenage boys are users: 51.5 percent report using
some form of tobacco during the past month.

Crunch the data any way you like, the massive anti-teen-smoking crusade has
been a disaster. Countless millions of dollars have been poured into
convincing youngsters not to smoke, yet a larger share of them are smoking
every day. It Is hard to imagine a more thoroughgoing failure. So will the
antitobacco warriors, humbled by such a defeat, call off their jihad?

Of course not. They will demand even more restrictions, impose even higher
taxes, curse tobacco companies more loudly. They will insist that the law
go even further to deprive smokers of the right to choose. And all, of
course, for "the kids."

The moment the CDC numbers were released, Health and Human Services
Secretary Donna Shalala was ready with a save-the-kids quote. "We're losing
ground in the battle to protect our children," she said. "Congress must act
promptly to enact comprehensive tobacco control legislation to protect our
children." Al Gore was ready, too: "This report gives us dramatic proof
that we must continue to fight to protect our young people from the
dangerous lure of tobacco."

But imposing ever-tougher sanctions isn't going to make kids lose interest
in smoking. The more the government preaches that cigarettes are nasty,
rude and reckless, the more some teenagers will want to smoke. What better
way to get restive adolescents to do something than to hector them
constantly not to do it? Smoking is so wicked that adults are demonising
even a cartoon camel? Lemme try one.

For more than a century, teens have been told that smoking is bad for them;
for more than a century, some teens have taken up smoking. Just as some
teens have taken up liquor, some have taken up reckless driving, aud some
have taken up drugs. All are Illegal. All are, for that very reason, more
appealing and "cool." Short of adopting dictatorial controls, there are
limits to what any government can do to stop teenagers from experimenting.

We have made it illegal for minors to acquire tobacco; we have made sure
they know that smoking is unhealthy; we have jacked up the price of
cigarettes with state and federal taxes. That much makes sense. Anything
more - the bans on to-tobacco-logo T-shirts, the Joe Camel insanity, the
persecution of restaurant owners - is hysteria. And as the new statistics
suggest, nothing makes tobacco more alluring to adolescents than hysterical
grown-ups admonishing them not to smoke.

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

Baby Boomer Parents In Denial About Children's Drug Use
('Orange County Register' Notes New Survey
From Partnership For A Drug-Free America Showing Parents Don't Always Know
When Their Kids Have Tried Marijuana)

Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 10:10:56 -0700
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)
Subject: MN: US: Baby Boomer Parents In Denial About Children's Drug Use
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: Mon, 13 Apr 1998
Author: John Stamper-Knight Ridder Newspapers

BABY BOOMER PARENTS IN DENIAL ABOUT CHILDREN'S DRUG USE

Only 21% of parents polled say their youngsters might have tried
marijuana;44% of teens queried say they have.

WASHINGTON- When it comes to drugs and kids, the baby boom generation is in
denial. Famous for their own forays with mind-altering drugs as teenagers,
members of the now-graying population appear unable to believe their kids
are using drugs and unwilling to broach the touchy subject with them, a
survey to be released today suggests.

Only 21 percent of parents acknowledged the possibility that their teen
might have tried marijuana, although 44 percent of teens say they have used
the drug, according to a new survey from the Partnership for a Drug-Free
America.

Deborah Barr was one of those parents. She never mentioned drugs to her
daughter, Tish, a brown-eyed girl who sported a melting smile framed by
long, dark-brown wavy hair.

Barr didn't feel like there was a need. After all, Tish was never out late.
She graduated near the top of her class from an elite Virginia high school,
where she was president of the Future Business Leaders of America.

Barr was wrong. Tish never got her chance to be a business leader. Instead,
her future came to a heart-wrenching halt Jan. 12, 1995, when she fell into
a coma after accidentally overdosing on heroin. Her mother was forced to
pull the plug on her life-support system less than a year after Tish had
graduated from high school.

"I was one of those parents that was in total denial," Barr said. "Drugs
couldn't touch my squeaky-clean family. My daughter was perfect, pretty and
smart."

Barr now is a full-time soldier in the war against drugs, trying to help
parents talk to their children before they, too, become overwhelmed by the
world of drugs.

More than 30 percent of teens say their parents never have talked to them
about drugs, while only a fourth said their parents have discussed drug use
four or more times in the past year, the survey said.

This lack of communication is proving to be a major problem, since teens
who talk to their parents about drugs on a regular basis are about half as
likely to use them, the study said.

The survey is produced annually by the partnership. This year, 9,712
children, teens and parents anonymously completed questionnaires over
several months in 1997. Since 1993, the study has shown use of marijuana by
high school juniors and seniors rise from 29 percent to 48 percent.

"I think parents understand there is a drug problem in this country, but
when it's in their own living room, they have a real perception problem."
said Leigh Leventhal, spokeswoman for the partnership. "Parents have got to
start opening up these discussions with their kids, no matter how
uncomfortable it is for them."

Leventhal suspects that many baby boomers might be skirting the issue
because of discomfort about revealing their own youthful drug experiences.
But she says parents need to get past that. "That's what parenting is all
about; learning from our mistakes."

Children also are finding out about drugs much quicker than their parents
think, with 90 percent of 9-to 12year-olds aware of marijuana and 66
percent of fourth-graders saying they wish their parents would talk more
about drugs.

Other findings of the survey:

Seven out of 10 teens say they have friends who use drugs, but only 45
percent of parents think their kids have drug-using friends.

Forty-three percent of parents believe their teen easily could find
marijuana, while 58 percent of teens say the drug is easy to come by.

To counter these changing perceptions of drug use, the partnership along
with the Office of National Drug Control Policy is launching a $195
million-a-year anti-drug advertising campaign.

The campaign, which equals what Toyota spends on advertising in a year and
is scheduled to go nationwide in July, should expose teens ato four
anti-drug messages a week. About 40 percent of the commercials will be
aimed at parents.

"We certainly think that this will help," Leventhal said. "This survey is
really an attempt for us to understand what is going on so we can 'unsell'
drugs to kids."

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

Boomers Unaware Of Their Kids' Access To Drugs (Lengthier 'Los Angeles Times'
Version Of Story On New Survey By Partnership For A Drug-Free America,
From 'The Record' In Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario)

From: "Starr" 
To: "mattalk" 
Subject: Boomers unaware of their kids...
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 12:25:01 -0400
Source: The Record (Kitchener-Waterloo, Canada)
recordletters@southam.ca
Date:April 13
By: LA Times

WASHINGTON

BOOMERS UNAWARE OF THEIR KIDS' ACCESS TO DRUGS

With an upturn in the number of U.S. preteens and teen-agers who were
offered illicit drugs last year; baby boomer parents are seriously
underestimating the presence of drugs in their childrens lives, a national
survey concluded Sunday.

While parents recognize the serverity of the nation's drug problem, "few
sincerely believe that their children are exposed to drugs, that drugs are
widely available in schools their children attend," said Richard Bonnette,
president of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America in Washington, the
survey's sponcer.

This finding of the Partnership Attitude tracking Study, which covered
9,712 children, teenagers and parents across the nation, is important
because the study also found that drug use is significantly lower among
children who learn about the risks of drugs at home. Only 28 per cent of
teens said they learned a great deal about the dangers of drugs from their
parents.

"Boomers -- many of whom have 'been there, done that' -- are surprisingly
and ironically out of step with the reality of drugs in their children's
lives," Bonnette said.

Illustrative of the problem in communications, 94 per cent of parents
interviewed said they talked with their teen-ager about drugs over the last
year. But only 67 per cent of the teens recalled those discussions.

"Research tells us that parents can prevent a variety of risky behavior
among their kids, including drug use," Bonnette said, citing the National
Longitudinal Study on Adolescent health, published last September by the
Journal of the American Medical Association.

"But taking action to protect your children first requires recognizing --
and then believing -- the possibility that your own kids are susceptible,"
Bonnette said. "It's easy to recognize the drug problem from a distance.
But seeing it as a real threat to your own children is too close to home
for some people."

Key findings of the survey include:

- While a majority of fourth, fifth and sixth graders believes there are
dangers in using drugs, their anti-drug attitudes weakened significantly
from 1993. In 1997, about 84 per cent agreed that using drugs is dangerous,
down from 87 per cent in 1996 and 90 per cent in 1993.

- Children in 1997 were less likely to tell their parents if someone
offered them drugs -- 49 per cent, down from 55 per cent in 1996 and 54 per
cent in 1993.

- Children's exposure to marijuana, as measured by the statement that they
had close friends who used marijuana sometimes, doubled from seven per cent
in 1993 to 14 per cent in 1997.

In a way of differing perceptions between the generations, the study found:

- Some 43 per cent of parents believe it's possible that their teen-ager
could find marijuana easily, while 58 per cent of teens say the drug is
easy to come by.

- While one-third of parents said they thought their teen-agers viewed
marijuana as harmful, only 18 per cent of teens viewed it this way.

- Just 21 per cent of parents said it was possible that their teen might
have tried marijuana, less than half of the 44 per cent of teens who said
they had actually tried it.

The study found that trail use of marijuana increased significantly as
children moved from grammer school into junior high or middle school. The
data indicate that seven per cent of sixth-graders had tried marijauna at
least once, a figure that jumped to 23 per cent among seventh-graders and
31 per cent of eighth-graders.

In the study, 1,922 children, 6,975 teen-agers and 815 parents completed
self-administered, anonymous questionnaires.

The Partnership for a Dru-Free America is a private, nonprofit coalition of
communications professionals.

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

Police Hold Nine-Month-Old In Jail - No Charges ('Cannabis Canada'
Says Police In Edmonton, Alberta, Refused To Provide Diapers,
Water Or Food Overnight After Busting The Infant's Parents
On Marijuana Charges)

From: creator@hempbc.com (Cannabis Canada)
To: cclist@hempbc.com
Subject: CC: POLICE HOLD 8-MONTH OLD IN JAIL - NO CHARGES
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 17:32:27 -0700
Lines: 75
Sender: creator@hempbc.com

POLICE HOLD INFANT IN JAIL OVERNIGHT WITHOUT CHARGES

By Dan Loehndorf

Police in Edmonton have sunk to new lows in violating basic human
rights. On the night of March 24, they held a nine-month-old baby girl
in jail overnight without laying any charges against her. They refused
her food, water and diapers for her entire stay.

Police refused to allow her parents, who were also being held, to call
the baby's grandparents (or even social services) to remove the infant
from jail. Police also denied the parents access to food and diapers for
the child.

Kerry McDowell, the child s mother, remembers how she became so
dehydrated that her milk dried up. When she asked only for water, she
was refused that as well.

Dean Kelly McDowell, the child's father, recounts the events leading up
to the raid. He, his wife Kelly, and his baby girl were leaving a
friend's place and had only gotten a few blocks when the lights of a
cruiser flashed in his rear view mirror.

Dean realized that he wasn't being pulled over for the usual broken
tail-light or muffler before police even got to his window. 50 feet
from the car the cop yelled, I can smell narcotics you re under
arrest.

The officer in charge relayed the order to wait for a search warrant,
but the boys in blue were too excited to wait. They tore his car apart
and found a single marijuana plant. They then used the presence of a
plant to leverage search warrants for the house Dean had just left.
According to the police report they found 107 plants at the home.

According to Dean, the amount was much less. Their amount includes 50
dead plants that were in a bag out back, and 30 newly sprouted
seedlings.

Dean is angry about the brutality of the police in his case. A complete
power trip on their behalf. I m waiting on some recontructive surgery on
my knee, and the police officer had to boot me there one of the guys
off the HIT [Hydroponics Investigation] team.

Dean was in jail for 5 days pending a $3000 cash bail for his one little
plant. Police charged him with two counts of possession for the purpose
of trafficking, conspiring to traffic, conspiring to cultivate, and two
counts of cultivation. It was Dean s first offense.

There was a guy in there with me arrested for five armed robberies, with
an AK47 on his person, and cash drop bags from the bank. And he was
released on $2000 bail.

The brutality of police towards Dean's family demonstrates how the war
on drugs dehumanizes people guilty of nothing more than growing an
innocent herb. Children are wrongfully imprisoned and starved, and the
sick are further injured ? while the government tells us that marijuana
laws are for the good of our health. It's like sewing someone's mouth
shut for eating chocolate.

It is against every legal sensibility, as enshrined in the Canadian
Constitution, and stretching back to the times of the Magna Carta, to
imprison anyone, including a child, without laying charges. It is a
basic human right that prisoners (even of war) be afforded food, clean
water and clothing, as guaranteed by the Geneva Convention, which has
been signed by all of the OECD countries, including Canada.

Designating a specific team of officers to target marijuana growers, and
calling it the HIT team encourages a special disregard for the rights
of Canadian citizens. It implies that our police forces are staffed by
trained assassins, with special dispensation to violate every human
right ever afforded by democratic society.

Kerry McDowell and Dean Kelly can be reached for comment through the
True North Hemp Co, a hemp store in Edmonton, at (403) 471-0058.

***

CClist, the electronic news and information service of CANNABIS CANADA,
"Canada's National Magazine of Marijuana & Hemp"

***

Subscribe to Cannabis Canada! Call 1-800-330-HEMP for info.
Write to: Suite 504, 21 Water St., Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6B 1A1
Visit Cannabis Canada online at http://www.cannabiscanada.com/

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

Mum's The Word On Group Giving Pot To The Sick ('The Record'
In Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, Notes A Medical Marijuana Dispensary
Called Marijuana Used For Medicine Is Engaging In Civil Disobedience
To Serve Patients In The Waterloo Region And Guelph)

From: "Starr" 
To: "mattalk" 
Subject: MUM's the word...
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 11:14:26 -0400
Source: The Record (Kitchener-Waterloo, Canada)
recordletters@southam.ca
Date: April 13, 1998
By: Phillip Jalsevac

MUM'S THE WORD ON GROUP GIVING POT TO THE SICK

A local club that provides marijuana to ill people began operations last
week, with organizer Jeannette Tossounian saying she's prepared to risk
going to jail for supplying cannabis to members.

Waterloo regional police have warned they will charge anyone selling or
distributing pot, whether for medicinal purposes or not.

"It does concern me," Tossounian, 22, of Kitchener said in an interview.
However, she said, "If I have to put myself on the line, that's what I have
to do."

Tossounian noted that federal Justice Minister Anne McLellan plans to
explore the possibility of decriminalizating marijuana for medicinal use.
But, she said, "it's not like I'm going to sit there waiting for the
government to decide to change something. I mean, they're thinking about it
now but they were thinking about it in the 70s."

Tossounian, who is studying to be a chartered herbalist and runs a hemp
clothing company, recently established a local chapter of the Medical
Marijuana Clubs of Ontario to serve people in the Waterloo Region and
Guelph.

She calls her chapter Marijuana Used for Medicine, and chose the acronym
MUM not as a reflection of the expression "mum's the word."

Rather, she said: "I like it because the (mum) plant is a flower."

And mom or mother is ideally known for her "nurturing" qualities.

That's what she's trying to bring to the suffering people she lovingly
calls "my patient."

40 INTERESTED

About 40 people have asked for membership forms and, to date, 10 people
suffering from HIV, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma and epilepsy have returned
the forms signed by there doctors.

Only two physicians have declined and the fact that 10 individual doctors
have co-operated shows "there is a large support from the medical
community," Tossounian said.

Doctors are asked to verify that a patient suffers from a particular
medical condition and to sign the form which says: "I have discussed with
my patient what I am aware of in terms of the health benefits and risks of
marijuana. I would consider prescribing it if I were legally able to do
so."

Tossounian phones the doctor's office to confirm the signature is
legitimate and then meets the members. That way, she said, "I get to know
exactly how much pain they're in and that they're sincere to the cause."

In a club brochure, Tossounian advertises her phone number -- 744-4721. But
the club's marijuana is not kept at or distributed from her apartment.

CONFIDENTIAL LOCATIONS

Rather, she arranges to pick it up and deliver it at locations that are
"pretty much confidential."

Still, it's not an overly clandestine affair. "I don't want to have to meet
anybody on some corner of the street or that sort of thing."

The fledgling club is off to a modest start, she admitted.

In her first deliveries last week, she provided members with barely an ounce
of grass in total, or enough for somewhere between 80 to 100 joints.

meanwhile, she's looking for a supplier who is sympathetic to the cause and
will offer marijuana at a dicounted price. "I don't have a good supply yet.
I'm getting it here and there."

Currently, she pays the going street price and members reimburse her.

Tossounian, meanwhile, is off to Vancouver on Tuesday to spend a week
studying the operations of a medicinal club there.

When she returns, she'll be working on organizing a fundraising event which
she hopes will generate enough revenue for her to open an office.

GETTING SUPPORT

She's getting support from people who tell her "it's great what you're
doing. it's about time."

And they come from all walks of life, not just stereotypical "hippie"
types.

She knows some people who smoked grass in the 60s and 70s and noted that
"now they're lawyers and doctors. It doesn't seem like marijuan got in the
way of their lives."

As for her civil disobedience in organizing MUM, she said: "I just don't
like watching people suffer."

Wistfully, she adds: "I really wish I could do this legally."

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

Focus Changes To Curbing Demand ('Calgary Herald' Says The United Nations
Is Changing Its Focus In The War On Some Drugs Away From Interdiction
To Education And Prevention Programs, Beginning With A Conference
Starting Tuesday In Banff Where More Than 150 Youth Delegates
From 22 Countries Share Their Ideas On Prevention Programs That Work -
In Canada, 70 Per Cent Of Drug-Fighting Money Is Spent On Prevention
And Only 30 Per Cent On Supply Reduction)

Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 19:34:39 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar 
Subject: MN: UN: Focus Changes To Curbing Demand
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: "D. Harper" 
Source: Calgary Herald (Canada)
Page: B2
Contact: letters@theherald.southam.ca
Website: http://www.calgaryherald.com/
Pubdate: Mon, 13 Apr 1998

FOCUS CHANGES TO CURBING DEMAND

Instead of arresting drug barons to stop the international drug trade, the
United Nations is encouraging member countries to spend money decreasing
the demand for illicit substances.

"There's no question there has to be a demand for drugs for there to be a
trade," said Staff Sgt. Mike Cullen of the Calgary police drug unit.

"It's a case of the chicken and the egg-which came first the customer or
the seller?"

Since the world-wide war on drugs in the early 1980's, the UN has
encouraged countries, including Canada, to spend millions on enforcing
tough drug laws.

Now the UN is changing its focus to education and prevention programs.

A UN-sponsored drug conference which starts Tuesday in Banff is the first step.

More than 150 youth delegates from 22 countries will share their ideas on
prevention programs that work.

One presentation will be on a circus performer training program aimed at
street kids in India. Another uses drama to help kids in some of the
toughest cities in the US.

Officials will take the recommendations of youth delegates to a UN special
session on international drug control in June.

"In Canada, the emphasis sine the late 1980's has been on demand reduction,
but internationally, there is still a strong bias to enforcement," said
Rick Garlick, spokesman for the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse.

"It's basically a health issue or a social issue, but the response to it,
for the longest time, has been enforcement."

In the United States, most of the war on drugs is directed at enforcement.
In a newly released 10-year plan, they'll spend four times the amount of
money on enforcement than they will on prevention.

In Canada, 70 per cent of drug-fighting money is spent on prevention and
only 30 per cent on supply reduction.

"Enforcement by itself will never be effective." said Garlick.

He gives the example of prisons, where drug use among the population is
very high.

"How far do we have to push the enforcement button, if in our prisons,
where people are behind bars, you can't stop drug use," said Garlick.

Since 1961, the UN has made three international declarations on the issue
of drug use. It's seen as a truly international problem.

Most of the drugs consumed in Canada come from other parts of the world.
Calgary's heroin supply comes mostly from Mexico, according to Cullen.
Cocaine comes from South America while LSD and designer drugs such as
Ecstasy come from U.S. sources.

But when it comes to the most commonly used illicit drug, Calgary's supply
is locally grown, said Cullen.

In fact, he said, Canada is a net exporter of pot.

A pound of Canadian grown pot can sell for $9,000 or more in the eastern U.S.

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

UN Conference - Youth Lead Drug Fight ('Calgary Herald' Article
About A United Nations Conference In Banff This Week
Includes Some Interesting Canadian Statistics On Use Rates
For Cannabis And Other Drugs - In 1992, There Were 732 Deaths In Canada
Attributed To Illegal Drug Use, Including 308 Suicides)

Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 19:34:39 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar 
Subject: MN: UN Conference - Youth Lead Drug Fight
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: "D. Harper" 
Pubdate: Mon, 13 Apr 1998
Source: Calgary Herald (Canada)
Page: B1
Contact: letters@theherald.southam.ca
Website: http://www.calgaryherald.com/
Authour: Laura Shutiak

UN CONFERENCE - YOUTH LEAD DRUG FIGHT

Olympic snowboarder Ross Rebagliati's friends aren't the only ones using
drugs in Canada.

Treatment centres, police and anti-drug agencies across the country report
an increase in drug use, especially among youth.

But this week, youths are leading the fight back against the trend with a
United Nations conference in Banff partially organized by a former Calgary
crack user, 19-year-old Christina Wilby.

"People who sit behind a desk in a suit aren't going to know what will help
drug abusers." she told the Herald. "Kids who have been through it know."

Also representing Canada at the conference are 17-year-olds Tracey Scott
and Carol Holinaty.

Scott, originally of Saskatoon, eventually found help for her drug problem
in Calgary.

"I think drugs are a worse problem than they have ever been," she said.
"It's harsher now."

Rates have been climbing for the last four or five years, said Richard
Garlick, spokesman for the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse.

"Everyone is scrambling for an explanation."

The Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission found 16 per cent of Alberta
youth reported using cannabis in 1995, the first year they studied
marijuana use. Five per cent said they used other street drugs.

A Manitoba survey of high school students showed a marked increase in drug
use. In 1993, 32 per cent of students reported using drugs other than
alcohol. The number increased to 44 per cent in 1997.

Cannabis use among Ontario students jumped from 14 per cent in 1989 to 22.7
per cent in 1995. The per cent age of students using LSD, heroin and
Ecstasy almost doubled in the same time.

To find solutions, drug prevention agencies such as the United Nations,
AADAC and the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse have called in experts.

Youth groups, almost all former drug users, will meet in Banff later this
week to discuss the prevention programs which helped them.

"This is different kind of conference with the focus on youth," said AADAC
executive director Leonard Blumenthal.

Drug use reached a peak in the late 1970s when marijuana and powdered
cocaine were the substances of choice. Usage rates declined in the 1980s,
due in part to a U.S.-led international war on drugs that brought the
problem to the public agenda.

But in the mid-1990s, use of almost all types of drugs-from pot to heroin -
has increased.

"Even drugs that seemed to have fallen out of use, like LSD, have come
back," said Garlick.

There are a number of explanations.

One is the fact that the baby boomers - who experimented with drugs in
the 1960s - are now the parents of teenagers.

"There's a sense that these kids aren't getting strong anti-drug messages
from their parents," Garlick said.

"Their parents lived through the huge drug revolution of the -60s and
-70s."

Blumenthal says parents often think schools are doing a good enough of
educating their kids, which isn't always the case. "We've become
complacent", he said.

Also, the downturn in the economy means less money is being spent on things
like anti-drug advertising.

"I think the political and the public interest in drugs has moved on to
other things like the economy and employment," said Garlick. "I think we've
gone to sleep on the issue. The messages on drug use aren't getting down to
kids."

The Drug Scene

- In the mid 80s, Calgary police investigated only a handful of pot-growing
operations. By 1996, the number had ballooned to almost 150.

- More drugs are being injected. It used to just be heroin, but now speed
(amphetamines) and cocaine are often injected. „Anything you can reduce to
a liquid can be injected.

-AADAC treated 2,717 youths in their treatment centres, eight per cent of
their total admissions.

- In Alberta in 1995, 55 per cent of youths 12-17 surveyed said they had
used alcohol in the past year, 30 per cent used tobacco, 16 per cent used
cannabis and five per cent used other street drugs. Adults were also
surveyed. They used more alcohol (76 per cent) and the same amount of
tobacco (30 per cent) , but their figures for cannabis (eight per cent) and
street drugs (two per cent) were lower.

- Across Canada, illicit drug use jumped from 1993 to 1994. Use of cannabis
increased from 4.2 to 7.4 per cent of the population, cocaine increased
from 0.3 per cent to 0.7 per cent and use of LSD, speed or heroin increased
from 0.3 per cent to 1.1 per cent.

- In 1992, there were 732 deaths attributed to drug use in Canada. This
includes 308 suicides, 104 opiate poisonings, 68 cocaine poisonings and 61
AIDS deaths from intravenous drug use. The highest risk of death from drug
use is in British Columbia, the lowest in Newfoundland.

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

Tory MPPs Urge Second Look At Ban On Student Smoking ('London Free Press'
In Ontario Says Two London-Area Members Of The Provincial Parliament
Say A Provincial Law Banning Student Smoking On School Property
Just Isn't Working And It's Time To Take A Second Look)

From: creator@islandnet.com (Matt Elrod)
To: mattalk@listserv.islandnet.com
Subject: Tory MPPs urge second look at ban on student smoking
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 08:19:01 -0700
Source: London Free Press
Contact: letters@lfpress.com

April 13, 1998

TORY MPPS URGE SECOND LOOK AT BAN ON STUDENT SMOKING

CREDIT: By Hank Daniszewski -- Free Press Education Reporter

Two London-area MPPs say a provincial law banning student smoking on
school property just isn't working and it's time to take a second
look.

Helen Johns (PC--Huron) said she can understand why some Huron-Perth
high schools have got around the Tobacco Control Act by leasing
municipal land to create student smoking areas.

She said the law only seems to chase teen smokers into surrounding
streets.

"We have to do something to make the legislation more workable."
Johns, who for two years was parliamentary assistant to the Minister
of Health, said more must be done to restrict teens' access to
tobacco. She favors hiking the price of cigarettes "astronomically,"
although she admits that's contrary to the Harris government's "no new
taxes" policy.

Oxford Tory MPP Ernie Hardeman agrees school boards shouldn't be
forced to find a loophole in a law that can't be enforced. "Whether
students smoke on the school grounds or two steps off, it doesn't seem
to make any difference," he said.

Hardeman said the Tobacco Control Act could be amended to allow
schools to create designated smoking areas.

Glendale high school in the tobacco-belt town of Tillsonburg had
persistent problems with students smoking in the school's suburban
neighborhood. The school struck a deal with the town several years ago
to transfer a small plot of ground next to a local park to create a
smoking area for students, said Pat Smith, a former chairperson for
the Oxford board of education.

But Smith is reluctant to have the ban on student smoking lifted,
despite the "headache" it means for some schools.

"I want to be cautious about taking a step backward."

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

Cross-Border Boozing ('Montreal Gazette' Examines The Phenomenon
Of People Under 21 From The United States And Ontario Driving To Quebec,
Where The Drinking Age Is 18)

Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 12:28:12 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar 
Subject: MN: Canada: Cross-Border Boozing
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: creator@islandnet.com (Matt Elrod)
Pubdate: Mon 13 Apr 1998
Source: Montreal Gazette (Canada)
Section: A1 / Front
Contact: letters@thegazette.southam.ca
Website: http://www.montrealgazette.com/
Author: Monique Beaudin

CROSS-BORDER BOOZING

Bars Are Luring Out-Of-Province Teens, And Results Can Be Deadly

A steady stream of cars and trucks pulls into the gravel parking lot
outside the Rocket, a run-down night club that gets its name from the huge
rocket on the lawn.

Several young people spill out of a dusty, beat-up truck. A young man
sitting in the front seat downs a bottle of beer and then he and his
friends make their way to the bar, joking and hugging each other along the
way.

A dry-ice fog hangs above the dance floor as a tipsy young man sways to
pounding music. Upstairs, people gather at pool tables, drinking and
laughing.

It's a typical Quebec bar scene, except the parking lot outside is full of
vehicles with Vermont and New York license plates.

The Rocket is a small bar less than a kilometre from the Quebec-New York
border. American teens flock to it to do what they're not allowed to do at
home - drink at the age of 18, and sometimes younger.

But for those young people, and their counterparts from Ontario who come to
bars on Quebec's western border, the ride home sometimes isn't as much fun
as the partying.

Despite years of public-awareness campaigns about drinking and driving, and
penalties for impaired-driving offences on both sides of the border,
teenagers are still getting behind the steering wheel after they've had a
few drinks - sometimes with disastrous results.

Last month, four teens - Nicholas Gage, 17, Brooke Kipp, 17, Mark Richards,
18, and Robin Lafont, 19, all from near Newport, Vt. - were killed when the
car they were in flipped over on Interstate 91, a few kilometres south of
the Quebec border.

Two of their friends survived, including the driver, 19-year-old Gregory
Twofoot, who has been charged with impaired driving in connection with the
early-morning crash.

The group had been drinking in Sherbrooke that night.

``This is a rural area, and there aren't any clubs for the kids to go to
here, so they go to Quebec,'' said Lt. Peter Johnson of the Vermont State
Police in Newport, which investigated the accident.

``It's a regular thing that kids in this area do. The drinking age is 21
here, plus you have all those clubs up there.''

Spurred on by the accident, the Vermont state senate has unanimously
adopted a bill that would give federal customs officers in the state the
power to enforce state law, as police officers do. This would include the
power to detain suspected drunk drivers at the border until police arrive.

The state house of representatives must approve the bill for it to become law.

The accident that killed the Newport youths raised questions about the
border bars, whose main clientele is out-of-province teenagers.

``Some of them advertise that the drinking age is 18 and it's legal to go
up and drink there,'' said Vermont senator Vincent Illuzzi, who represents
an area near the Canadian border.

``I just think there's different attitudes about alcohol in the U.S. and
Canada, or at least Quebec. I think it's more accepted in Quebec.''

At the border crossing in Rock Island, on the Vermont-Quebec boundary, the
Canadian customs officer pointed out one of the bars up the hill that
Vermont teenagers frequent, and talked about what night and time they
usually show up.

The bars that out-of-province teens choose are utilitarian, and usually
charmless. Their appeal is their proximity to Ontario, Vermont and New York.

A favourite for eastern Ontario teens is Martin Village, a small bar on
Lake St. Francis near Riviere-Beaudette from which you can almost see the
border sign.

For years, high-school students have made the 20-minute drive from the
rural areas around Lancaster and Alexandria, Ont., to this bar and others
like it along the border. Many of their parents also participated in what
is commonly seen as a rite of passage into adulthood.

``About 85 per cent of our customers are from Ontario,'' bartender Bob
Humenick said, drying a glass with a dish towel.

``We get the kids on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. They come here
because the drinking age is 19 on the other side of the border.''

The bars advertise in the weekly newspaper in Alexandria, offering $1 draft
beer, free pool and free jukeboxes.

Humenick said his customers are usually asked for identification, but ``not
every night, every person.''

``You get the regulars, so you don't ask them every time,'' he said. ``If
they look really young, then we ask them. If they don't have ID, they don't
get in.''

The Surete du Quebec checks ``once or twice a year'' to see if the bar is
serving under-age customers, he said.

But ``they usually show up on a weekday night when the kids don't come,''
Humenick added.

Teens interviewed for this article said they often get into the bars
without having to prove their age - or if they are asked, they have fake
IDs ready.

Once they're in, it's usually the beginning of an all-night drink fest.

``These kids don't go out and have a drink to socialize,'' said Sgt. Andy
Vanderwoude, who heads up the Ontario Provincial Police detachment in
Lancaster.

``They go out and drink to get drunk and pass out and brag about it the
next day. I never saw anything like it before I came here.''

At the end of the night, the kids pile into their cars and start driving
home, which is often as far as 50 or 60 kilometres away.

For four Alexandria teenagers, that was where the trouble started four
years ago. They were killed after a night drinking in a bar in Dorion, west
of Montreal. A 17-year-old boy who had been drinking at the same bar was
convicted of manslaughter after his car bumped the other boys' car, sending
it into the path of an oncoming tractor trailer near Alexandria.

Police forces just outside Quebec are well aware of the Friday- and
Saturday-night trips to the province, and do regular spot checks to try to
dissuade teenagers from driving when they've been drinking.

After a night of drinking beer, some teenagers are dangerous weapons,
Trooper Richard Garcia of the New York State Police said.

``We want to protect these young people from themselves,'' Garcia said.
``We try like the devil to.''

In New York, the drinking age is 21. Drivers under 21 who have any alcohol
in their bloodstream can have their driver's license automatically
suspended or taken away as part of a zero-tolerance policy on drunk
driving. Border-patrol, customs and immigration officers at the New York
border have the same power as police, and can arrest suspected impaired
drivers.

Garcia said he couldn't recall any recent serious accidents involving New
York teens returning from Quebec.

``This zero-tolerance thing has come through in the past three years, and
it has pretty much knocked the wind out of them,'' he said.

``They don't want to take a chance going over there.''

It's different in Vermont, where border-patrol officers don't yet have
police powers. Some do find ways to detain people they suspect of being
drunk, but they don't have the legal authority to do so.

In Ontario, people with a probationary driver's license can lose it if they
have any alcohol in their blood. Other drivers face license suspensions or
revocations, or jail time, depending on the amount of alcohol in their
system and the number of times it's happened.

As for the Surete du Quebec, the police force says the Ontarians and
Americans aren't causing any problems.

People who are 18 years old are allowed to drink in Quebec, regardless of
what the drinking age is in their home province or state.

``It's really our problem,'' said Illuzzi, the Vermont senator. Quebec
could help by raising the drinking age for American citizens to 21, he
said. But he admitted that this was unlikely, and that it would probably be
unenforceable.

Several young Americans interviewed at the Rocket said they know there are
risks to getting behind the wheel after having a few drinks. They said they
make sure they have a designated driver if they're heading to a bar. None
admitted to driving drunk.

``If you're smart, you have a designated driver,'' said an 18-year-old man
from Alburg, Vt. ``You can have a really hard time at the border.''

One of his friends said he'd been stopped at the New York border many
times, and once his car was searched.

An 18-year-old who drove 45 minutes from her rural Vermont home said she
was stopped at the border the night she was the designated driver for her
friends.

``They did the whole deal, making me touch my nose, walk in a line and do a
breathalyzer,'' she said. ``I wasn't drunk, because I hadn't been drinking
that night, but I was so nervous. They treated me as if I was drunk.''

Several police officers said more young people are traveling with
designated drivers these days.

``You're got to give them credit for that,'' said Constable Hugh
McClements, a Lancaster OPP officer who conducts anti-drinking and driving
programs in two local high schools.

``Some kids do take it seriously. But you've got to recognize the fact that
some of them think they'll never get caught.''

The police said they hope the awareness campaigns they do, and similar ones
conducted by groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving and Students Against
Drunk Driving, will encourage more teenagers to choose a designated driver
if they're going to drink.

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

Caffeine's Kick Carries A Big Punch - Scientists ('Edmonton Journal Extra'
Says 10 Scientists Recently Wrote To Canadian Health Minister Allan Rock,
Asking Him To Consider A Requirement That Processors
Disclose Caffeine Content On Food And Beverage Labels)

From: creator@islandnet.com (Matt Elrod)
To: mattalk@listserv.islandnet.com
Subject: Caffeine's kick carries a big punch -- scientists
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 07:58:45 -0700
Source: Edmonton Journal Extra
Contact: letters@thejournal.southam.ca
Pubdate: Mon 13 Apr 1998
Page: A1/ Front
Author: Ed Struzik, Journal Staff Writer

CAFFEINE'S KICK CARRIES BIG PUNCH - SCIENTISTS

Everyone knows it causes anxiety and sleeplessness. Most people
understand that it is mildly addictive.

But a group of Canadian scientists wonders if consumers are really
aware that the amount of caffeine they consume could negatively affect
pregnancy, the health of children and the onset of osteoporosis.

The scientists are also raising concerns about the distinct
possibility that Health Canada may soon allow beverage producers, who
are now allowed only to add caffeine to cola soft drinks, to add
caffeine to carbonated citrus-flavoured soft drinks as well.

"I think it's time that the issue of caffeine and health be opened to
public debate," says John Kennelly, chairperson of the University of
Alberta's department of agriculture, food and nutritional science.

Health Canada recommends that Canadians should consume no more than
400 to 450 mg of caffeine per day. That's about what you'd find in two
eight-ounce mugs of gourmet coffee, four cups of instant coffee, or
two-and-a-half Big Gulp cola drinks.

No one knows how many Canadians exceed the recommended daily limit,
but two recent studies suggest there is cause for serious concern.

One study, for example, shows that Canadians drink 25 per cent more
soft drinks than milk. The other indicates that children who consumed
one or more soft drinks a day consumed one-fifth less calcium than
children who did not drink soft beverages at all.

That worries Kennelly and the other nine scientists who recently wrote
to Health Minister Allan Rock, calling on him to consider disclosing
caffeine content on food and beverage labels.

Kennelly believes many Canadians would be interested in the
information so they can manage their intake.

Kennelly realizes that food producers are likely to react negatively
to any regulation that requires them to create new labels and possibly
conduct analyses of the caffeine content that may be naturally found
in a product they sell.

But the more important issue, he says, is health.

"Caffeine is the only drug that is widely added to the food supply.
... It is an addictive stimulant and scientific research has
demonstrated that caffeine consumption affects reproduction, behaviour
and bone mineral metabolism, and has negative nutritional consequences
for children."

Health Canada has not yet responded to the scientists' request. But
the scientists already have a powerful ally in the Washington-based
Centre for Science in the Public Interest, a non-profit health
organization with one million members.

CSPI has already presented Health Canada with a list of studies
establishing direct and indirect links between caffeine consumption
and poor health.

The organization, which has seen caffeine introduced to bottled water
in the United States, has warned against the idea of allowing caffeine
to be added to citrus-based soft drinks in Canada.

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

The Pain Of Gambling - Opening The Door To Financial Ruin
('Kingston Whig-Standard' Looks At Manitoba's Legal Gambling Industry
And Those Prone To Gambling Addiction)

From: creator@islandnet.com (Matt Elrod)
To: mattalk@listserv.islandnet.com
Subject: The pain of gambling: Opening the door to financial ruin
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 08:12:13 -0700
Source: Kingston Whig-Standard
Pubdate: Mon 13 Apr 1998
Section: 1 / Front
Author: Rob Tripp, Whig-Standard Staff Writer

***

The pain of gambling: Opening the door to financial ruin

Even a conservative estimate suggests that thousands of Kingston-area
residents will develop gambling addictions if casinos and betting
machines pop up across the region.

``Whenever you have widespread legalized gambling ... you're going to
have people getting into trouble,'' said

Gerry Kolesar, supervisor of gambling programs at the Addictions
Foundation of Manitoba.

The Crown agency now spends roughly $1.5 million a year on gambling
treatment and education programs in Manitoba, where gambling
opportunities abound.

There are an estimated 4,500 video lottery terminals in bars, hotel
lounges and racetracks there. Casinos scattered across the province
feature table games and slot machines.

The video terminals were introduced in 1991.

The Manitoba government's own research suggests there are now 35,000
people with gambling problems in the province, ranging from minor to
serious addiction and financial ruin.

The total represents about 4.3 per cent of the adult population, a
low-end figure compared to similar studies in other provinces with
widespread gambling.

If the percentage is transposed to Kingston, it would translate into
between 2,000 and 3,000 problem gamblers.

``I think in the next few years for sure, gambling isn't going to go
away so we have to find a way of preventing the problems as much as
possible and then providing treatment for those people,'' Kolesar
said, in a telephone interview with The Whig-Standard.

He doesn't believe that the Ontario government's decision to scrap
plans for video lottery terminals in favor of slot machines makes any
difference.

``I don't think that you're going to find a big difference in the
number of people who will have problems,'' Kolesar said.

Slot machines are slower to play and aren't as hi-tech.

``In our experience, there hasn't been a big difference between the
slots and the VLTs,'' Kolesar said. ``There's very little difference
in the machines.''

Eighty-five per cent of the clients his agency treats each year are
video lottery terminal users.

``They're being forced [into treatment] by financial losses and the
resulting family problems that come with that,'' he said.

Lack of treatment is one of the concerns raised by gambling opponents
across Ontario, including people in Kingston.

CASH-FLOW PROBLEMS

Cash-flow projections for a proposed Kingston casino suggest roughly
$160,000 a year would be set aside for such programs.

But if 2,500 problem gamblers each get a month of intensive,
residential treatment at $5,000, the tab is $12.5 million.

The program that broke Kingston resident Terry Young's gambling
addiction is available for $5,000 Cdn, and it's considered a bargain.

``We keep costs down,'' said Mike McMonigal, a senior official at
Project Turnabout in Granite Falls, Minn.

For residents of Minnesota who need the treatment, it's free,
subsidized by the state. Clients stay at the Minnesota facility for a
month, undergoing intensive daily therapy in group and individual
sessions.

There are no residential treatment programs for gambling addicts in
Manitoba.

``I don't think [gambling addiction] gets the attention it needs,''
said McMonigal.

Manitoba's Kolesar said most residential alcohol and drug addiction
programs cost roughly $300 a day, so the Minnesota gambling program
appears to be low cost.

Kolesar's agency counselled almost 560 gamblers last year, less than
two per cent of the province's problem gamblers.

Where are the rest, and what are they doing?

``That's a good question,'' he says, acknowledging that more research
is needed.

``One of the things we have to do as an agency is find out why people
aren't coming for help and try to reach them.

``There is a lot of shame associated with having a gambling problem
and having the financial problems that go with it.''

Although he's in the business of treating and preventing gambling
addictions, Kolesar, a Crown employee, cannot take a political
position on gambling.

But he does have a caution.

``If people were making money gambling, we wouldn't have a gambling
program because they wouldn't be seeking help,'' he says. ``They'd be
making bundles of money at it.''

GAMBLING FACTS

- the Ontario government wants to set up 44 charity casinos across the
province - Kingston and Belleville are approved sites

- the casinos were supposed to open April 1, but community opposition
has prevented any from opening

- local councils have been given veto power over the casinos and most
have rejected them

- Kingston city council has asked for a study of a casino's impact,
paid for by the approved operator

- studies suggest a Kingston casino would reap more than $16 million
annually from gamblers' losses

- no studies have been done to show any negative effects of a Kingston
casino

- for information on addiction services in the region, call the
Addiction Research Foundation in Kingston at 546-4266 or Addiction
Services in Lennox & Addington at 634-0666 (Amherstview)

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

Mexico Spies On Its Citizens, Senator Reveals ('San Jose Mercury News'
Says More Than A Dozen Cases Have Come To Light In Recent Weeks
Of Mexican Government Espionage Operations Against Citizens,
Political Foes and Prominent Business Leaders)

Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 10:21:02 -0700
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)
Subject: MN: Mexico Spies on its Citizens, Senator Reveals
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Jerry Sutliff
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Contact: letters@sjmercury.com
Website: http://www.sjmercury.com/
Pubdate: Mon, 13 Apr 1998
Author: Molly Moore - Washington Post

MEXICO SPIES ON ITS CITIZENS, SENATOR REVEALS

Politicians', journalists' phones bugged

MEXICO CITY -- Just after 9 o'clock on a recent night, Sen. Layda Sansores
Sanroman banged on the front door of a concrete house in the historic
center of the southern Mexican city of Campeche. What she discovered when
the janitor opened the door unleashed a scandal that has ripped open the
underbelly of Mexican politics.

A back room was crammed with electronic eavesdropping equipment.

Another room contained files stuffed with thousands of pages of transcripts
of telephone conversations of politicians, journalists and private
citizens.

The raid on the government espionage center -- complete with financial
records and seven years of tapes and transcripts -- has exposed
extraordinary details of the government's bugging operations against its
citizens, political foes and prominent business leaders.

``I was furious to discover my life on papers, documents, recordings and
computer files,'' said Sansores, 52, a federal senator from the opposition
left-of-center Party of the Democratic Revolution.

Surveillance uncovered

In recent weeks, more than a dozen other cases of government espionage have
been uncovered across the country, ranging from hidden microphones and
cameras found in the offices of the new government of Mexico City to
interceptions of the telephone calls of a state governor. According to
Sansores, the Campeche discovery revealed there are 22 similar operations
throughout the country.

In Campeche and elsewhere, every government agency identified with the
electronic surveillance operations -- the federal attorney general and
Interior Ministry, the military, the national security agency and a
plethora of state institutions -- has denied any knowledge. Officials of
the Institutional Revolutionary Party have accused Sansores of manipulating
the information to buttress her claims that the party used fraud to defeat
her in last year's gubernatorial election.

The discoveries -- and the willingness of the targets to go public with
evidence -- confirmed many Mexicans' long-held suspicion that their
government has acted as an omnipresent Big Brother spying on its citizens,
its perceived enemies and, frequently, on some of its own agencies and
officials.

Crime links alleged

The bugging operations have become particularly troublesome in recent years
with an explosion in kidnapping, drug trafficking and other crimes that
many citizens and human rights activists say has been abetted by corrupt
law enforcement officials with access to wiretaps.

Although wiretapping was illegal in Mexico until last year, when a new
criminal reform package was approved allowing court-ordered wiretaps for
law enforcement purposes, bugging scandals have made headlines regularly
for years. But never before have victims hit the evidentiary jackpot that
Sansores discovered March 3.

Tipped off by an anonymous note pressed into her hand during a campaign
rally, Sansores and her aides collected thousands of files. They unearthed
records that showed state government checks were used to buy more than $1.2
million in surveillance equipment from Israel. They found a list of names
of the main bugging victims. And they found transcripts of telephone
conversations and boxes of audiotapes dating to 1991.

On the night of the raid, Sansores -- whose aides videotaped the entire
episode -- could not persuade local or state authorities to investigate the
spy center or make arrests. The federal attorney general's office has begun
an investigation but declined requests to discuss the case.

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

Heavy-Handed Tactics Are Not Solving Problem (Letter To Editor
Of Britain's 'Evening News' Says It's Not Surprising Prohibition-Caused Crime
Is Increasing)

To: ukcia-l@mimir.com
From: webbooks@paston.co.uk (CLCIA)
Subject: PUB: Heavy-handed tactics are not solving problem
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 16:55:35 +0100
Source : Evening News, Norwich, UK
Pub Date: 13 April 1998
PUB LTE : Heavy-handed tactics are not solving problem
Contact : EveingNewsLetters@ecn.co.uk
Fax : 01603 628311 (+44 1603 628311)
Evening News, Prospect House, Rouen Road, Norwich, NR2 1RE, UK

Heavy-handed tactics are not solving problem

So drug-related crime has shot up in the area (Evening News April 7). What
a surprise!

It proves that heavy-handed prohibitionist tactics are doing nothing to
solve the drugs problem or the associated fund-raising crime.

To punish an addict is senseless; they need help. Forcing them to buy their
substances of addiction at hugely-inflated illegal market prices, does
nothing to help them.

I am not suggesting that hard drugs be available over the counter in the
corner shop, but it is surely about time that the supply of hard drugs was
taken out of the hands of the criminal organisations and pushers. Drugs
which cost thousands of pounds on the illegal market could be supplied by
doctors at a fraction of the cost. This would immediately knock the bottom
out of the criminal supply, reduce fund-raising crime drastically, and help
in the identification and treatment of addicts.

Such an idea is more than feasible. It has already been tried - and it
succeeded - by Doctor John Marks in an area of Liverpool. He legally
supplied heroin to addicts and all the above positive consequences were seen.

The incidence of new addiction dropped - there was no need for the addicts
to raise funds through passing on some of their illegal drugs at a profit to
new users.

To a person who's heart is set on prohibition and punishment, the idea of
helping addicts may seem unappealing. What is clear is that the present
system is disastrous, and a new approach is needed.

Sincerely,

Alun Buffry

***

CANNABIS QUIZ - WIN A TRIP TO AMSTERDAM
SEE : htp://www.paston.co.uk/users/webbooks/canquiz.html

***

CLCIA On-Line Bookshop :
http://www.paston.co.uk/users/webbooks/webhome.html
safe and secure purchase through Amazon.com

***

Campaign to Legalise Cannabis International Association (CLCIA)
Campaigners' Guide : http://www.paston.co.uk/users/webbooks/index.html
CLCIA : http://www.foobar.co.uk/users/ukcia/groups/clcia/clcia.html
e-mail : webbooks@paston.co.uk Tel : +44 (0)1603 625780
"The use of cannabis ought to be a matter of choice, not of law."

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