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Legal Questions Entangle Measure ('The Oregonian' Notes Legal Challenges
Besetting Measure 40, Promoted By The Newspaper
As A 'Victims Rights' Initiative Even Though It Was Really Written
By Prosecutors To Make It Easier Than Ever For Them To Convict People,
No Matter What The Evidence)

The Oregonian
letters to editor:
letters@news.oregonian.com
1320 SW Broadway
Portland, OR 97201
Web: http://www.oregonlive.com/
5-17-98

Legal questions entangle measure

* More than a year after voters passed Measure 40 to boost victims' rights,
concerns about its constitutionality abound

By David R. Anderson
of The Oregonian staff

Prosecutors and defense attorneys don't agree on much, and Measure 40 is
Exhibit A.

To hear them argue, the measure is either a necessary balancing of the
rights of crime victims with defendants or a frontal attack on the Oregon
Constitution.

A year and a half after voters made the measure part of the state
constitution, the Oregon Supreme Court is saddled with 19 cases that
challenge portions of the measure or all of it. Prosecutors are struggling
with tough decisions about how those legal challenges might affect current
and future criminal cases.

The measure granted at least 14 rights to crime victims, from the right to
be present at proceedings to the right to have 11-1 jury votes convict
murder defendants. Opponents say most of the provisions are not crime
victims' rights but tools for prosecutors to get convictions.

"It's so broad it turns the whole notion of a fair trial on its ear," said
James Gregory, a Portland defense attorney.

But proponents say the effect has been moderate, as they predicted.

"It's made the system fairer," said Norm Frink, a Multnomah County chief
deputy district attorney. "But does it have an impact in the vast majority
of cases? No."

The adversaries seem to agree on two things.

First, prosecutors have used most of the measure's provisions selectively.
Prosecutors say they are being judicious. Defense attorneys say prosecutors
merely are biding their time and will use the full force of the measure if
it is ruled constitutional.

And second, both sides are waiting impatiently for the Supreme Court to rule
on the constitutionality of the measure, which became Article 1, Section 42,
of the state constitution after the November 1996 voter approval.

"Everybody is literally sitting on the edge of their seats," said Clatsop
County District Attorney Josh Marquis.

Courthouse halls are full of speculation. The Supreme Court has undergone
many changes in recent months, with Susan Graber and Ed Fadeley leaving the
court. So, observers thought it significant when the court agreed to hear a
new case on March 31 from Marion County that challenges the entire measure,
not just one of its provisions. The issue is whether the changes are so
sweeping that only the Legislature could initiate them.

In the meantime, cases involving Measure 40 are stalled in the appeals
process. Two of the more high-profile cases involve defendants accused of
belonging to a sex ring at the Blue Ridge Apartments in Astoria and Alissa
Fechter, a Clackamas County woman accused of murdering her 4-month-old son.

As attorneys wait to hear about the measure, so do the victims. Harrison
Bletson of Portland is accused of fatally stabbing his mother, Dannella
Bletson. Rosa Washington, Dannella Bletson's daughter, expected her brother
to go to trial in April. With his case pending before the Supreme Court, she
doesn't know when she'll have to shut down her hair salon and sit through a
wrenching trial.

"I just can't do anything until this is over," Washington said. "It's like
they're punishing me also."

In addition to the individual cases on appeal, Senate Bill 936, which
implemented the measure, also faces constitutional challenges.

Although the philosophical debate rages on, a Supreme Court decision at
least would end the contradictory rulings that have come out of the trial
courts around the state. Judges in Jackson, Jefferson and Columbia counties
have ruled the entire measure unconstitutional. Other courts have ruled
portions of the measure unconstitutional.

And within Multnomah County Circuit Court, for example, Judge James Ellis
has ruled the measure unconstitutional, but Judge David Gernant has ruled
the measure constitutional on the same issue.

Prosecutors say some cases either will stand or fall with Measure 40 and SB 936.

For example, there's the "dog sniff case," as Frink called it. Police at a
Texas airport used a drug-sniffing dog to check out a suspicious package
headed for Oregon. The dog "alerted," which meant the dog might have smelled
illegal drugs in the package. Texas authorities notified the Multnomah
County Sheriff's Office and sent the unopened package. Authorities here got
a search warrant, found nearly 2 kilograms of marijuana and arrested the man
for whom the package was intended.

The issue is whether a dog sniff constitutes a search, said Nikola Jones, a
deputy district attorney. According to the old law, the evidence probably
would be excluded. According to Measure 40, it can be used because Oregon's
more restrictive search and seizure laws are now trumped by the U.S.
Constitution, which provides less privacy protection. The measure states
that criminal defendants shall not have more rights than those granted by
the U.S. Constitution.

Gregory said he is seeing more cases that start with a jaywalking stop and
end up in a drug arrest.

But Frink disagrees, saying that is the provision of Measure 40 that is
being used most cautiously.

Marquis claims that the conviction rate will not change much because of the
measure. The main purpose, he said, was to help victims feel vindicated by a
process that now has the truth as its aim instead of merely presenting a
limited number of facts.

Proponents also say Measure 40, along with Measure 11's mandatory minimum
sentences for violent crimes and other recent anti-crime sentiment, is
balancing a movement in the 1980s that emphasized the rights of criminal
defendants. During that time, the state's judiciary created privacy rights
that exceeded the federal constitution.

"If they want to see why these things happen, they should look in the
mirror," Frink said of defense attorneys.

Several sections of the measure address evidence. The measure allows all
"relevant" evidence, which is defined as evidence that tends to prove guilt.

One effect has been that prosecutors have been able to introduce evidence of
past convictions, which was not allowed before Measure 40. Defense attorneys
say that past conduct does not prove that a person committed the crime
charged. All it does is "throw mud" on defendants in front of a jury, said
Cheryl Albrecht, a criminal defense attorney.

Pretrial release of suspects in Measure 11 cases is restricted in another
section. Most trial judges throughout the state who have ruled on this have
declared it unconstitutional because it places the burden on the defendant
to prove that he or she will not commit a crime if released before trial.

Under SB 936, the burden of proof shifted slightly to prosecutors, but not
enough for many judges. The statute also set a minimum bail of $50,000 for
such violent crimes. So 10 percent cash must be posted.

In Multnomah County, many of those awaiting trial in the past were released
to the close street program, an intense supervision by corrections deputies.
That has changed, and it's hurt poor defendants.

"Basically, if you want to get out, it costs $5,000," said attorney Edward
Jones, head of Multnomah Defenders Inc.

But that means that dangerous suspects who otherwise would have been
released -- like the suspect accused of robbery with three prior robbery
convictions or the guy who allegedly tried to use his car to run down two
bouncers who threw him out of a tavern -- were rightly kept in jail before
their trials, Frink said.

Multnomah County Sheriff Dan Noelle said the measure undoubtedly increased
the number of people in jail, but the effect has been so small that he
doesn't know what the numbers are and did not set up any system to measure
the impact.

Another section allows a conviction in murder and aggravated murder cases on
an 11-1 jury vote. But that apparently has come up in only two cases --
Bletson and Fechter. Prosecutors have not asked to use the provision in
other cases.

The measure also restricted who could serve on juries. Convicted felons are
prohibited, and jurors must be registered voters, not merely selected from
Driver and Motor Vehicle Services records.

The result is that juries in criminal cases have become more white and more
conservative, Albrecht said.

Prosecutors say that has not been proved. They think that people who don't
take the trouble to participate in political decisions should not be allowed
to participate in a decision on whether to imprison someone.

The measure also includes a provision that allows prosecutors to demand a
jury trial instead of a trial by a judge. Defense attorneys say prosecutors
use that when they don't like the judge assigned to a case. Frink said that
prosecutors have not used that provision often but that it levels the field
with defendants, who also can demand a jury trial.

The importance of the measure goes beyond the immediate effects on criminal
cases, to the issue of how the state constitution can be changed, said Peter
Gartlan, a deputy state public defender. That ruling might have an effect on
how future measures are written.

The Supreme Court also will decide other fairly technical issues, such as
whether the 14 rights granted to crime victims constitute a single subject
and whether an unconstitutional portion of the measure would make the entire
measure unconstitutional.

Meanwhile, everyone waits.

"A lot of cases are hanging fire," Marquis said.

David R. Anderson covers state courts for The Oregonian's Crime, Justice and
Public Safety Team. He can be reached by phone at 294-7663, by mail at 1320
S.W. Broadway, Portland, Ore. 97201, or by e-mail at
DavidAnderson@news.oregonian.com

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Caretakers Routinely Drug Foster Children (An Otherwise Excellent Article
In 'The Los Angeles Times' Doesn't Say How Many Children Are Removed
From Their Parents' Homes Because Of Marijuana, Only To Be Subjected To
Mandatory Chemical Intervention, But It Does Note A Large Proportion
Of The 100,000 Children Under State Protection In California Group
And Foster Homes Are Being Drugged With Potent, Dangerous Psychiatric
Medications, Often Just To Keep Them Obedient And Docile For Their
Overburdened Caretakers - A Review Of Hundreds Of Confidential Court Files
And Prescription Records, Together With Observations At Group Homes
And Interviews With Judges, Attorneys, Child Welfare Workers And Doctors
Revealed That Youngsters Are Being Drugged In Combinations And Dosages
That Experts In Psychiatric Medication Say Are Risky And Can Cause
Irreversible Harm)

Date: Mon, 18 May 1998 12:28:26 -0700
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US CA: Caretakers Routinely Drug Foster Children
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Jim Rosenfield
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Contact: letters@latimes.com
Fax: 213-237-4712
Website: http://www.latimes.com/
Pubdate: Mon, 17 May 1998
Author: Tracy Weber, Times Staff Writer

CARETAKERS ROUTINELY DRUG FOSTER CHILDREN

Psychiatric medication could do irreparable harm, experts say. Often,
consent is lacking.

Children under state protection in California group and foster homes are
being drugged with potent, dangerous psychiatric medications, at times just
to keep them obedient and docile for their overburdened caretakers.

A review of hundreds of confidential court files and prescription records,
observations at group homes as well as interviews with judges, attorneys,
child welfare workers and doctors across the state, revealed that
youngsters are being drugged in combinations and dosages that experts in
psychiatric medication say are risky--and can cause irreversible harm.

In part because of a lack of oversight, officials responsible for the
children's welfare say they don't know how many of the state's 100,000
foster children are being given mood-altering medications, many of which
have never been tested for use on children.

In Los Angeles County--which has nearly half the state's foster
children--dependency court judges last year approved requests to medicate
about 4,500 kids. That doesn't include those drugged with parental consent
or those drugged with no consent at all, which experts believe is a
significant problem. In addition, a county grand jury found in 1997 that
nearly half the group home children it examined were drugged without court
or parental consent.

Experts from around the state said widespread drugging, both with and
without legal approval, occurs in other California counties as well.

"We sometimes don't know who put kids on drugs and why," said Nathan
Nishimoto, an Orange County Department of Children and Family Services
official who, until recently, was in charge of tracking children in the
county's care.

There's the 5-year-old boy in a Tustin group home who was not only being
given an antipsychotic, but massive doses of Ritalin and clonidine--though
researchers from UCI and UCLA have published articles reporting that that
combination has caused sudden death and heart problems in some children.

There's the 8-year-old foster child in San Francisco County on Cylert for
his hyperactivity, despite warnings from the drug's manufacturer that its
use can lead to liver failure and death in children. The boy did not
receive the requisite blood checks to monitor the drug in his system.

At the Orangewood Children's Home in Orange County, kids as young as 3
skip up to the drug cart several times a day, to take the "meds" that
control their "depression" and "rage." To say nothing of the scores of
California teenagers prescribed pills to battle manias and psychoses with
little explanation of why or by whom.

Many psychiatrists vigorously defend the use of psychotropic medications on
children in foster homes and group homes, arguing that the benefits of
using them on these often troubled youths outweigh future risks of harm.
"Your hand gets forced when these children are so disruptive," said
professor Stephen M. Stahl, who teaches psychopharmacology at UC San
Diego. "How sick would they be if you didn't give them drugs?" he asked.

Dr. James Hogrebe, who works with grade-school-age children at an Anaheim
group home, said, "Most [of these medications] can be used safely, if
they're monitored correctly."

But the lack of proper monitoring is precisely part of the problem, say
numerous officials involved in the child welfare system.

Prescription Records Scant or Nonexistent

Many child psychiatrists, attorneys and children's advocates say the
apparently widespread practice of drugging amounts to a form of medical
experimentation on some of the state's most vulnerable kids--those taken
from parents who abused them.

In many instances, the doctors who prescribe what their colleagues call
"chemical straitjackets" aren't psychiatrists and have little training in
the highly specialized field of psychiatric medications.

According to group home directors and child care workers, some of these
doctors and psychiatrists examine a child for minutes before prescribing
powerful, behavior-altering medications. And some come after dark, when
children are asleep, look at files and write prescriptions.

These revelations come at a time when many experts have expressed serious
reservations about the rising number of kids in the general population who
are being prescribed adult medications.

An estimated 800,000 children and adolescents nationwide last year were
prescribed antidepressants such as Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft, according to
IMS America, an industry research firm that surveys physicians. Another
half a million children, aged 6 to 12, were prescribed Tegretol and
Depakote, two adult antimanic, antiseizure drugs, the firm's data shows.
And in 1996 some 3.25 million in that age group were prescribed drugs such
as Ritalin to control hyperactivity, IMS America says. Controversy or no,
such drug use by kids in the general population is at least monitored by
parents and physicians.

But psychiatrists in several California counties say sometimes the only
way they know what drugs a child in a foster home or group home has been
taking is if the child can remember such obscure names as Desyrel (an
antidepressant), Mellaril (antipsychotic), Tegretol (antimanic) or Catapres
(antihyperactivity).

One Orange County teenager filled a notebook page with the cornucopia of
drugs she'd been given; few of the drugs had been logged in her official
files.

An 8-year-old state law requires that foster children's medical histories
be recorded in "medical passports" and follow them from home to home. But
this requirement is routinely ignored as too burdensome, officials say, and
children's medical records are often incomplete. For most kids, every time
they move, their care passes to different physicians and psychiatrists.

"When I get a new kid, I have no idea what [medications] he's been on,"
said Dr. Kenneth Steinhoff, UC Irvine's chief of child psychiatry, who also
sees children in a group home. "I don't know who the [child's previous]
doctors are. You get practically nothing. It's a crime."

In San Bernardino County, Jeff Broyde, head of the public defender unit
representing children, said it's difficult for his office to monitor
whether a child is getting proper treatment; each attorney in his office
represents some 1,200 children who sometimes are housed hundreds of miles
away.

"There's no way we can run out there and see . . . if the child is OK," he
said. "The important thing [is] seeing the child. If you see a child
looking like a zombie, it's wrong, even if it's medically permitted."

In numerous interviews across the state, one official after another--from
individual foster parents to judges to doctors--described occasions where
children seemed to be misdiagnosed, given the wrong medication or given too
much medication.

* In Los Angeles County, judges who oversee the cases of foster children
have become so concerned by the widespread disbursement of drugs that in
April they imposed a system designed to ensure that a child had been
thoroughly examined and that other options had been tried before
psychiatric drugs were prescribed. Each psychiatric diagnosis and
prescription must be reviewed by county psychiatrists before court
approval.

"We all have enormous fears that our decisions, one way or another, are
going to cause serious harm to these children," said Terry Friedman,
presiding judge of the L.A. County dependency courts. "This, more than any
other decision as a judge, causes me enormous anxiety."

Drugging Without Consent Widespread

One of the new policy's architects doubts it will provide a complete
answer to the problem. A report by the Los Angeles County Grand Jury in
1997 suggested that his concerns are valid: An audit of 158 cases found
that children in group homes were being drugged without the legally
required consent nearly half the time.

Dr. Michael Malkin, chief of mental health services for the county's
juvenile courts, said there is no real punishment for doctors who don't
seek court approval, and reviewing the consent forms that are submitted
doesn't answer the basic questions: Does the child truly need the
medication, and do a drug's benefits outweigh its sometimes serious side
effects?

John Tobin, the county's mental health coordinator, said the sheer number
of doctors treating children in Los Angeles makes quality control nearly
impossible. Last year, more than 400 doctors requested court permission to
drug nearly 4,500 children--more than 300 under the age of 6. And these
numbers don't include the many children whose parents consented to the
medication, precluding the need for court approval. Nor do they account
for the number of foster and group home kids, such as those the grand jury
found, who had been drugged without anyone's consent.

* In San Diego County, Juvenile Court Referee Michael Imhoff says
legislative intervention might be the only way to control the use and
misuse of psychiatric medications. "I think everyone will agree that the
scope of this problem is expanding," Imhoff said. "It's a systemic
problem."

Imhoff said the court's supervising judge now reviews every request to
medicate a child, and San Diego's dependency court judges are "absolutely
frightened" that children are being drugged without their knowledge.
Sooner or later, he said some calamity will occur "that will be very
difficult to explain."

Some Homes Seem to Sedate All Toddlers

Ana Espana, who supervises the unit in the county public defender's office
that represents foster children, said she has personally encountered cases
of foster children being drugged improperly.

"We had a 5-year-old client who was kept in a psychiatric hospital for
over a month, who had multiple changes of medication, and we didn't find
out for weeks after," said Espana. "Our feeling was this child was being
experimented on. We got him out and into another facility, and they [the
doctors at the second hospital] were horrified by what he'd been on."

She said she had been to foster homes where all the toddlers appeared to
be sedated, and her office would later find out the children were drugged
without anyone's permission.

* In the Bay Area, several psychiatrists who treat foster children say
they regularly see children who have been put on multiple medications by a
variety of doctors. Dr. Lynn Ponton, a professor of adolescent psychiatry
at UC San Francisco, said a 14-year-old girl who had been living in a
group home recently showed up for an appointment on antipsychotics and
antidepressants. "She'd been on these medications for a year and nobody
knew why she was on them or who put her on them," Ponton said. "They dump
[kids] on these meds instead of worrying about continuity of care and
therapy."

* In Orange County, controversy over the questionable use of psychiatric
drugs on foster children has surfaced before. More than three years ago,
the county hired a UCLA professor, a Torrance psychiatrist and a
pharmacologist from a state hospital to investigate complaints by one of
its own managers that children at the county's temporary shelter,
Orangewood Children's Home, were being improperly medicated.

The report has never been made public, but the county's Juvenile Justice
Commission last summer released a brief summary of the major findings,
accusing some Orangewood psychiatrists of jeopardizing the health and
well-being of children in their care by deviating from "normal, customary
practices" in prescribing psychiatric drugs.

Daun Martin, a psychologist and former chairwoman of the Juvenile Justice
Commission, said she was "shocked" at the practices at the shelter. "It
was apparent from the consultants and the records that there were some
serious health risks to children," Martin said.

Tim Mullins, until recently the county's director of mental health
services, said the problems at Orangewood have been corrected.

But according to several child psychiatrists, who reviewed approved
medication consent forms for children staying at Orangewood, problems
persist. The medications requested on some consent forms didn't correspond
to the diagnoses, the psychiatrists said, and the amount and combinations
of drugs in some cases were "outrageous."

In one case, a county psychiatrist put an 11-year-old girl on large
amounts of Tegretol, Depakote and Clonidine for attention deficit and
hyperactivity disorder and "aggression/agitation." Dr. Thomas Hicklin,
head of the child psychiatry ward at the Los Angeles County-USC Medical
Center, said either the diagnosis or the medication had to be wrong.
"That's appropriate treatment for mania and bipolar disorder. You wouldn't
treat ADHD with those drugs," Hicklin said.

In another case, an Orangewood psychiatrist asked to put a 15-year-old boy
on massive doses of the antipsychotic Risperdol "indefinitely," and the
antidepressant, Trazodone, for behavior outbursts, impulse control and
insomnia. "There would be no justification in the literature for such
treatment," said Dr. James McGough, an assistant professor of child
psychiatry at UCLA, who reviewed the boy's medications. The psychiatrist
"is putting this child on medication for a grown man with full-blown
schizophrenia. In my mind, it borders on criminal."

Dr. George Pascarzi, the county child psychiatrist who reviews all the
medications prescribed at Orangewood, says "those two cases would
certainly be considered unusual," though he is comfortable with the
medication in both situations. He said he would need to know more about
the 11-year-old girl's medical background to judge whether the combination
and doses of the drugs were correct, whether other medications had been
tried first and what levels of the drugs were detected in her blood tests.

Pascarzi says that at least while the children are at Orangewood, they are
given complete medical evaluations and, if necessary, monitored with EKGs
and blood tests to make sure the medications are not harming them.

There's no question that the use of adult-strength medications to relieve
depression, and to control manias, psychoses and rage, were at one time
well-intended and a valid means to help the system's most severely
disturbed children. But as the number of kids in the child welfare system
has exploded over the last decade, so too has the use of powerful,
controlling medications on children, some of whom may not need them,
experts say.

Joe Huley, in charge of group home inspections for the Orange County
Department of Children and Family Services, ordered one Tustin group home
for children ages 3 to 12 to fire its psychiatrist in 1996, after
discovering that the doctor was prescribing the tranquilizer Thorazine for
every child in the home--whether they needed the medication or not.

Prescribed for Need or for Convenience?

Many parents say they believed their kids didn't require medication but
felt pressured to sign consent forms because they hoped to regain custody
of their children and didn't want to appear uncooperative.

"What can I say about it? If I protest, they'll say I don't care about the
kids," said Janet Van Eyk of Orange, whose three grandchildren were taken
from her after she was accused of abusing one of them. "I had the girls
assessed at school for hyperactivity and they said they didn't need drugs.
Now they have them on them."

While many kids do need treatment, many others in the state's care are
drugged for expressing normal angry reactions to abuse and abandonment--or
for just being rambunctious kids, say children's attorneys and some
psychiatrists.

Psychiatrists, or sometimes simply internists, employed by some group
homes respond to the complaints of harried child-care workers by
prescribing medications or increasing dosages on the basis of a phone call
from an untrained worker, say child advocates and the workers themselves.

"Putting kids on medication is easier for the people who care for them,"
said Dr. Euthymia Hibbs, chief of psychosocial treatment research for
children and adolescents at the National Institutes of Health. "It is more
convenient for everyone around--but the kids."

J. Michael Hughes, an Orange attorney who represents children in
protective custody, agreed, "The group home calls up and says, 'Johnny is
acting up.' So they give him a drug. It's perennially a problem in these
group homes."

Dr. David Chadwick, director emeritus for the Center for Child Protection
at the Children's Hospital of San Diego, said doctors and court officials
there became concerned when it appeared that foster parents were having
unruly children put on medication without proper examinations or consent.
In two separate instances, Chadwick said, foster children ages 4 and 5 came
in for medical exams taking antipsychotics and antihyperactivity drugs.
"The foster mothers had relations with certain doctors where they could
just call up and get meds," Chadwick said. "There was not what I considered
a sufficient evaluation before they prescribed the drugs."

Professor Stahl from UC San Diego places part of the blame on a child
welfare system that cheats doctors of the resources they need to do their
jobs. "The doctors don't have time to make an assessment. The fastest
thing is to use chemical straitjackets on the kids--and some of them
probably need it.

"You're forced to use drugs because [the group homes] are understaffed and
they're unnatural environments," Stahl added. "The facilities have to be
safe."

Usually there are three or more traumatized kids for every group home
staffer, though there can be as many as eight. The workers, typically
fresh out of college, are paid $7 to $9 an hour and seldom stay longer
than a few months. Drugging kids is cost-effective: Most pills cost from 3
to 17 cents. Therapy is an expensive proposition.

"A lot of these kids suffer from a deficit in attention, not attention
deficit disorder," said James Swanson, a psychologist who heads UCI's Child
Development Center.

"If we were to get more one-on-one with these kids over a longer period of
time," said Javier Chavez, a senior counselor at Orange County's
children's shelter, "they wouldn't need all those meds."

It is resoundingly unclear how "all those meds" may be altering children's
lives. Anecdotally, however, experts say there are numerous disturbing
accounts.

Under the influence of such drugs, children have suffered from drug-induced
psychoses, hallucinations, abnormal heart activity, uncontrollable tremors,
liver problems and loss of bowel control, according to health
professionals, attorneys and court records.

The manufacturers of some drugs, such as the antidepressant desipramine,
specifically warned doctors not to give the drug to kids after some
children became ill or died as a consequence of taking the drug. "We
advise against using [desipramine] in children," said Charles Rouse, U.S.
director of communications for Hoechst Marion Rousell, the maker of the
antidepressant.

Because the drugs have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration for adults, a doctor can prescribe them to patients of any
age, even though they have not been tested on children.

"These drugs can result in a toxic reaction, either something that makes
the child really sick or . . . makes the kid dead," said Dr. Chadwick from
the Center for Child Protection in San Diego. Chadwick was hired as a
consultant in a court case involving a Seattle foster child who died in
1996 after being given toxic doses of an antihyperactivity drug.

No foster children in California are known to have died from excessive or
improper medications. But child advocates say prescription drugs could have
played a role in some cases where death was blamed on unexplained heart
arrhythmia or other organ failures.

One such death occurred in March in San Bernardino, where a 10-year-old boy
in a group home was found to have died of a heart attack brought on by
unknown factors. A police detective said toxicological tests showed that
the medications in his system were within acceptable limits, so the death
may never be explained.

Beyond the physical side effects, experts worry about how or if these
medications affect children's ability to have normal relationships, to
learn, and to have and rear children of their own.

Children between the ages of 3 and 6 who take antipsychotics such as
Mellaril and Haldol have been found to have learning problems. "Your brain
is wired to learn things during that period that you can't learn later,"
Dr. McGough from UCLA said. "There's a real risk. Nobody knows the
long-term effect."

Some doctors and child advocates worry that the pills set the children,
often the progeny of drug abusers, on a lifetime of drug dependency.

"This is the wrong message to send to children: 'Take this pill and you'll
feel better,' " said Dr. Thomas Laughren, medical reviewer for the FDA's
division of neuro-pharmacological drugs.

Added McGough: "You're really teaching them that they're dependents and
damaged and need drugs to be normal."

Some psychiatrists may be unaware of the serious side effects that some of
these drugs can have, because they spend so little time with the
children--unlike their caretakers.

At a Tustin group home, one 3-year-old boy appeared so dazed and
incommunicative that a therapist said he would never leave the child
welfare system or his medications, that he was retarded and unadoptable.
But when Greta Anderson, a Costa Mesa foster parent, took in the 30-pound
boy she learned he was being given large doses of clonidine, a drug used to
fight both depression and hyperactivity, three times a day.

"The amount of medication he was on for a 3-year-old was just incredible,"
Anderson said. "Once we got him off the drugs, his vocabulary increased
tenfold, he was potty-trained and his medical diagnosis went from mental
retardation to learning disabled."

"I'm not against medications," said Anderson, who is in the process of
adopting the boy. "I'm against sedating children."

Dr. Malkin also sees the effects of over-drugging. He recounted the case
of a 9-year-old girl in Los Angeles County who ended up back at the county
children's shelter after attacking her foster sister with a knife. The
girl's Ritalin prescription had been upped to dosages far beyond those
recommended for her age and weight, Malkin said.

"She was psychotic when she got [to the shelter,]" Malkin said. "She just
had a toxic amount of Ritalin in her system. When we took her off the
medication, she was fine.

"The only real solution," Malkin said, "is to have social workers with
caseloads of 10 kids. The thing that's missing is to have someone in the
parental role. Someone who shares the child's destiny."

* DAILY PILL ROUTINE: Steven and Kenny's ritual is repeated across
California.

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

Praise, Loathing Greets Thompson Adaptation ('Chicago Tribune'
Says Terrv Gilliam's 'Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas'
Has Been An Argument-Starter At The 51st Cannes Film Festival)

Date: Tue, 19 May 1998 10:17:33 -0500
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: FRANCE: Praise, Loathing Greets Thompson Adaptation
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Steve Young
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Pubdate: 17 May 1998
Author: Michael Wilmington
Section: sec. 1
Contact: tribletter@aol.com
Website: http://www.chicago.tribune.com/
Author: Michael Wilmington

PRAISE, LOATHING GREETS THOMPSON ADAPTATION

CANNES, France - With its extreme portrayals of drugs, sex, paranoia
and excess, director Terrv Gilliam's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"
has been an argument-starter at the 51st Cannes Film Festival.

An uncompromisingly faithful version of Hunter S. Thompson's legendary
semi-factual coverage of an off-road race, "Fear and Loathing" has
Johnny Depp in an amazing impersonation of journalistic outlaw
Thompson (bald pate and all) and "Usual Suspects" star mumbler
Benicio Del Toro as Thompson's attorney sidekick, fitted with a
prosthetic stomach.

And while the film's supporters praise Gilliam's fidelity to the book
and stunning visuals, its detractors seem worried that the movie has
pro-drug vibes.

At the Cannes news conference, Gilliam, Depp, Del Toro, and producers
Laila Nabulsi and Stephen Nemeth seemed unfazed. Asked what kind of
audience he expected, Gilliam cited demographic studies that showed
the movie tracking well among "smart people, the youth audience and
surfers," with detractors topped by "females between the ages of 35
and 40" (but not, mysteriously enough, any other females).

Depp, meanwhile, described how he achieved his uncanny, counterfeit screen
Thompson: clipped, ironic chatter, paranoid body language. He said he was
aided immeasurably by time spent with Thompson at his home near Aspen,
Colo. where -- cigarettes and all -- Depp slept next to a gun-powder cache.

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

Teen's Death One Year Ago Brought End To Marine Border Patrols
('Dallas Morning News' Recounts The Drug-War Homicide Of Esequiel Hernandez,
A 10th-Grader From Redford, Texas, A Remote Border Town
200 Miles Southeast Of El Paso, As He Grazed His Goats Near The Rio Grande)

From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: "MN" 
Subject: MN: US: KY Wire: Teen's Death 1 Year Ago Brought End To Marine Border Patrols
Date: Sun, 17 May 1998 19:50:50 -0500
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: adbryan@onramp.net
Pubdate: Sun, 17 May 1998
Source: Dallas Morning News
Contact: letterstoeditor@dallasnews.com
Website: http://www.dallasnews.com

TEEN'S DEATH 1 YEAR AGO BROUGHT END TO MARINE BORDER PATROLS
Critics applaud decision; others fear retreat from war on drugs

05/17/98

Associated Press

EL PASO - As the combat-ready Marines approached, Esequiel Hernandez Jr. lay
writhing on the ground, trying to speak.

A single round from an M-16 had pierced the 18-year-old's side. Soon, he
would become the first American casualty of U.S. soldiers enlisted to fight
the war on drugs.

He may also have been the last.

Mr. Hernandez's death on a rain-swept evening a year ago Wednesday ignited a
national controversy over armed patrols on the U.S.-Mexico border, leading
the military to suspend such patrols two months later.

Not one armed soldier has returned since.

"We don't know when and if those missions will be reinstated. To be very
honest, we don't believe they will. The entire operation was put under
scrutiny. I just don't see us going back into that business," said Lt. Col.
Jere Norman, spokesman for Joint Task Force Six, the agency that coordinates
anti-drug missions between the military and civilian authorities.

The Pentagon created the El Paso-based JTF Six in 1989 after the White House
declared drugs a national security threat, opening the door to limited
military involvement in interdiction efforts.

Critics say the move eroded the 1878 Posse Comitatus act prohibiting the
military from performing civilian law enforcement functions.

It was "against the democratic values and beliefs of this country since the
Declaration of Independence," said Maria Jimenez director of the Immigration
Law Enforcement Monitoring Project, a watchdog group.

Inviting tragedy

Opponents said putting armed military patrols among civilian populations was
inviting tragedy.

They say Mr. Hernandez's death on May 20, 1997, proved them right.

Mr. Hernandez, a 10th-grader from Redford, a remote border town 200 miles
southeast of El Paso, had been grazing his goats near the Rio Grande when he
crossed paths with a four-man Marine patrol.

The team had been placed on the river at the request of the U.S. Border
Patrol to conduct surveillance of a suspected drug route.

What happened next has been the subject of debate.

The Marines said Mr. Hernandez fired at them twice with a .22-caliber rifle,
prompting the camouflaged soldiers to trail him for about 20 minutes until
he raised his rifle a third time.

Team leader Cpl. Clemente Banuelos, fearing a fellow Marine was in danger,
responded by firing a single round from his M-16. The bullet struck Mr.
Hernandez under the right armpit and ripped across his body. Within the
hour, he was dead.

Family members deny that Mr. Hernandez would ever have knowingly shot at the
Marines and say he only carried the vintage rifle to shoot targets or
protect his small goat herd from wild dogs. Local and federal authorities
say he wasn't involved in any wrongdoing when he was killed.

"It's something that you can't understand, why it happened, why they had to
kill him, why it had to be done," said Mr. Hernandez's older brother,
Margarito. "We can't accept they had a reason to kill him. It was wrong."

Amid his painful recollections, Margarito Hernandez expressed some
satisfaction with the discontinuation of the missions that had placed armed
soldiers directly on the border.

Civil rights advocates are pleased as well, but they're wary because the
Pentagon could reverse the decision. Even if it doesn't, JTF Six will still
be involved with police, including training them in military tactics.

"It's a different threat," said Tim Dunn, author of Militarization of the
U.S.-Mexico Border. "It's a more severe threat if they're out there with
guns. But if the other facets of the relationship . . . continue, that's
still dangerous."

Effect of suspension

Supporters of military involvement see a different threat.

"We should not unilaterally retreat from the war on drugs because there is a
tragedy," said Paul Marcone, chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Jim Traficant,
D-Ohio. "The [suspension's] net effect is that we have more cocaine and
heroin coming into the United States."

Mr. Traficant has urged the Defense Department to resume the patrols and,
for the second time, he plans to introduce legislation this year that would
allow increased military participation.

Lt. Col. Norman, the JTF Six spokesman, said he's not sure civilian agencies
would even want armed soldiers to return.

Tomas Zuniga, a Dallas-based spokesman for the Immigration and
Naturalization Service, said: "If it became available to us, we'd have to
take a long hard look at it. Shame on me once, but not shame on me twice."

Two grand juries, one convened by Presidio County officials and another by
the U.S. Justice Department, cleared Cpl. Banuelos in the shooting. The
military maintains Cpl. Banuelos and his three fellow Marines followed the
established rules of engagement and acted appropriately.

The Presidio County panel noted that while Mr. Hernandez may have been
firing in the Marines' direction, he likely didn't know they were there.

The grand jury left enough unanswered questions that District Attorney
Albert Valadez asked a judge for transcripts of the federal testimony and is
considering whether to reopen the case.

Another investigation is being conducted by Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio,
chairman of the House immigration subcommittee.

Meantime, Mr. Hernandez's family is pursuing a claim against the government
and for the past several months has been negotiating with the Justice
Department for compensation, said family attorney Bill Weinacht.

"In order for us to resolve this case, they have to place significant value
on Esequiel Jr.'s life," said Mr. Weinacht, declining to comment further.

Margarito Hernandez said: "Whatever they do, it's not going to bring my
brother back."

Wednesday, the anniversary of the shooting death, civil rights advocates
will hold services in Austin, Houston and El Paso, where an enormous star
that burns year-round on the Franklin Mountains will be dedicated to Mr.
Hernandez for a week.

The Rev. Melvin LaFollette, a retired Episcopal priest, said a Mass also is
scheduled in Redford, primarily for the family, but he expects most of the
community to attend.

The shooting remains "an open wound," he said. "There has been no
resolution, and without resolution, there can be no healing."

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

Leading Question - Milton Friedman ('San Jose Mercury News' Columnist
Interviews The Nobel Prize-Winning Economist
About Why Ending Drug Prohibition Won't Increase Harm)

Date: Mon, 18 May 1998 12:37:19 -0700
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US: Leading Question: Milton Friedman
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Marcus-Mermelstein Family 
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Contact: letters@sjmercury.com
Website: http://www.sjmercury.com/
Pubdate: Sun, 17 May 1998

LEADING QUESTION (A weekly feature by Bob Frost)

MILTON FRIEDMAN

Friedman, 85, is a Senior Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution on the
Stanford campus. He won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1976.

Q: You are an advocate for the legalization of drugs such as heroin,
cocaine and marijuana. You recommend treating all drugs exactly as alcohol
is now treated. Isn't it likely that the number of addicts and users would
rise if such a policy were put in place?

A: The evidence is mixed on that question; the number might go up, or
might not. For example, on the one hand, leglization would make the price
of drugs go down sharply, which would of course increase the number of
users. On the other hand, there are a number of considerations that could
offset the lower price, and lead to a reduction in the use of drugs -- for
instance, legalization would remove the "forbidden fruit" aspect of drugs,
which serves to make them attractive to young people. In Switzerland,
experimental groups of addicts are able to legally buy drugs at low prices,
and the result has been a sharp reduction in crime, a sharp increase in the
number able to hold jobs and a reduction in addiction levels.

Whether the number of addicts and users goes up or goes down or stays the
same, one thing is clear: The harm done to our society and the world by
that use of drugs would be much less than the harm done under out present
system. The world would be, overall, a better place with legalization.

The available evidence indicates that our attempt to deprive individuals of
the freedom to use drugs such as heroin and cocaine has done far more harm
than good. It has filled our jails, corrupted our police, deprived people
of their civil liberties and imposed unbelievable horrors on other
countries such as Mexico and Colombia. On just this last issue -- the
effect of our drug policy on other countries -- I have never found anyone
able to give me a plausible answer on what right the U.S. has to destroy a
country like Colombia just because we can't enforce our own laws. If we
could enforce our laws, there would be no drug cartel there, no black
market, no endless string of drug killings and less instability in the
government. Because we can't enforce our laws, the country is being
destroyed.

Q: A strong majority of Americans, according to the polls, support a
continued prohibition on drugs. What do you think the chances are that
your views will become public policy?

A: I don't know, but I will say this: In 1930 it was widely believed to
be impossible to get rid of the unworkable prohibition on alcohol. I
believe that if the public were fully informed about the issue, there would
be overwhelming support for legalization.

Q: Are you one of these guys who get high on reefer and listen on the
headphones to "Dark Side of the Moon"?

A: No. (Laughs.) I have never smoked a marijuana cigarette, nor have I
used heroin or cocaine. I have no personal stake in this position.

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

Clinton To Endorse McCain Tobacco Bill (According To Massachusetts'
'Standard-Times,' Newt Gingrich And Other House Republican Leaders
Denounced The McCain Bill, Saying It Reflects The Big-Government,
Pro-Tax-Spend Policies Of Liberal Democrats,
And Legislation Wouldn't Get Through Their Chamber)

Date: Sun, 17 May 1998 15:33:19 -0400
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US: Clinton to endorse McCain tobacco bill
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: John Smith
Source: Standard-Times (MA)
Contact: YourView@S-T.com
Website: http://www.s-t.com/
Pubdate: Sun, 17 May 1998
Author: Dina Temple-Raston, Bloomberg News

CLINTON TO ENDORSE MCCAIN TOBACCO BILL

BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND --U.S. President Bill Clinton will endorse Sen. John
McCain's tobacco bill at a White House ceremony on Wednesday and say he'll
sign the bill if comes to his desk largely unchanged, White House press
secretary Mike McCurry said. This will be the first time Clinton has
endorsed specific tobacco legislation. By doing so, the president will be
putting his prestige behind a specific bill in a bid to build momentum for
passage of anti-smoking legislation this year.

In September, Clinton asked Congress to give him legislation that would
raise the price of a pack of cigarettes, allow the government to regulate
nicotine, restrict tobacco advertising and marketing to minors, and help
tobacco farmers.

McCain's bill, which evolved out of a settlement reached last June between
tobacco companies and 40 state attorneys general to recover tobacco-related
health costs, now meets the president's criteria, McCurry said.

Clinton will endorse the McCain bill surrounded by a retinue of children
and standing beside Matt Myers, general counsel of the Campaign for
Tobacco-Free Kids, said deputy press secretary Joe Lockhart.

"There is still a lot of legislative road to travel," said Lockhart. "But
if the bill arrives on his desk the way it looks right now, the president
will say he will sign it."

Speaker Newt Gingrich and other Republican leaders of the House of
Representatives denounced the McCain bill. They say it reflects the
big-government, pro-tax-spend policies of liberal Democrats, and say
legislation won't get through their chamber.

The Senate bill breakthrough came this week during meetings between
Clinton's chief of staff Erskine Bowles and Bruce Reed, his domestic policy
adviser, and McCain, the Arizona Republican who has taken the lead on the
measure.

Just days before the Senate starts debating the measure Monday, they agreed
in principle on strengthening a number of provisions in the bill to address
some of the president's concerns including the cost of liability, McCurry
said.

The revised measure would increase caps on liability for cigarette makers
to $8 billion a year from $6.5 billion; set tougher provisions for
companies if teen smoking rates don't decline by set levels; and fine
individual companies if market surveys show teens are disproportionately
smoking their brands, McCurry said.

The Washington Post reported the agreement earlier yesterday.

The tobacco industry opposed McCain's original measure, saying it would
drive them out of business. Tobacco companies are certain to fight any
efforts to toughen penalties on the industry.

McCain's bill would raise the federal cigarette tax by $1.50 a pack, give
the federal government authority to regulate nicotine, and restrict the
advertising and marketing of tobacco. The measure would also impose an
annual liability cap for the industry -- offering less legal protection
than the industry won in last year's $368.5 billion national tobacco
settlement. Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota predicted
yesterday that the Senate next week would pass it by an overwhelming majority.

Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi, majority leader of the
Republican-controlled Senate, says he isn't as sure. "I think though, that
in the end there is at least a 50-50 chance something will pass the Senate
(and) an increase in the price of cigarettes will be part of it," he said
in remarks taped for CNBC's "Tim Russert" show.

While the House declined to come up with an election-year bill to combat
smoking, the Senate accepted a challenge by the White House and various
public advocacy groups to move on a measure of its own. In various votes,
the Senate has demonstrated a willingness to turn the screws on the tobacco
industry, long one of the most powerful lobbies on Capitol Hill.

On March 31, the Senate, on a vote of 79-19, approved a non-binding
resolution putting it on record against giving the industry any immunity
from liability.

The next day, on a 19-1 vote, the Senate Commerce Committee approved
McCain's anti-smoking bill. This week the Senate Finance Committee raised
the proposed $1.10-a-pack federal tax increase in McCain's bill to $1.50 a
pack and sent the bill to the full Senate on a 13-6 vote.

With the tobacco industry saying the measure would drive many cigarette
makers out of business, several senators will seek to soften it. Senate
Assistant Republican Leader Don Nickles of Oklahoma has said he will seek
to scale-back the McCain bill, now estimated to cost the industry $516
billion over 25 years.

Sen. Orrin Hatch has paired with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California
Democrat, on a measure worth roughly $425 billion.

House Republicans may be forced to rethink their position, Daschle said.
"If we generate the kind of momentum that I think exists here, I think it
will be very difficult for the House leadership to ignore" the legislation,
he said.

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

Dutch Woman Arrested Trying To Smuggle Cocaine In Shampoo
('Associated Press' Describes One Attempt To Smuggle Cocaine
In Liquid Form And Another Attempt To Smuggle It
Mixed With Iron Dust And Charcoal)

Date: Sun, 17 May 1998 00:53:18 EDT
Originator: drctalk@drcnet.org
Sender: drctalk@drcnet.org
From: ltneidow@voyager.net (Lee T. Neidow)
To: Multiple recipients of list 
Subject: Ferrous cocaine

Dutch woman arrested trying to smuggle cocaine in shampoo

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - A Dutch woman trying to smuggle 22
pounds of liquid cocaine in children's shampoo bottles was arrested at
Bogota's airport, police said Saturday.

Airport police became suspicious because of the weight of the suitcase
owned by Felicia Capellan, 41, in which a hidden compartment
contained the bottles, authorities said.

Capellan, who was bound for Amsterdam via Frankfurt, Germany, was
arrested Friday, as was a 35-year-old Colombian, Raul Garcia.

On Wednesday, police seized a 331-pound shipment of cocaine mixed
with iron dust and charcoal. Narcotics division director Col. Leonardo
Gallego said he'd never seen black cocaine before and explained that
the iron and charcoal were easily extracted.

That cocaine was bound for France and Italy.

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

Gangsters Declare War On Mandela (Britain's 'Sunday Times'
Says The 'Gangsters' Who Control South Africa's 'Burgeoning' Prostitution,
Drugs And Protection Rackets Have Been Angered By The Plan
Of President Nelson Mandela's Government To Seize Their Assets)

Date: Mon, 18 May 1998 19:57:02 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: South Africa: Gangsters Declare War On Mandela
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Martin Cooke 
Pubdate: Sun, 17 May 1998
Source: Sunday Times (UK)
Contact: editor@sunday-times.co.uk
Author: Andrew Malone, Cape Town

GANGSTERS DECLARE WAR ON MANDELA

IN THE Little House on the Prairie, an illegal drinking den less than 30
minutes' drive from the centre of Cape Town, the rich and powerful of the
"new" South Africa gathered last week to talk politics and money. As the
wind whipped sand across the Cape Flats, a desolate plain that is home to
3m impoverished people, members of the Sexy Boys and Hard Living gangs
sipped cold beers and announced that they were going to war.

Brandishing an AK-47 assault rifle, Sticks "The Mongrel" Nbugane, a
self-confessed mob hitman, leapt to his feet and fired bullets into the
wall. "This is what they have got coming," he cried.

The gangsters who control South Africa's burgeoning prostitution, drugs and
protection rackets have been angered by the plan of President Nelson
Mandela's government to seize their assets. The move is part of a campaign
to contain a crime wave which is threatening the future of the country.

Rashied Staggie, described by police as the most wanted man in South
Africa, regards this lack of "respect" from the government as intolerable.
"Look! Mandela was a gangster who used force against the white government,"
said Staggie, who plans to form his own political party.

"Now they call him a politician. We have had enough. We are going to take
over the country."

In what Thabo Mbeki, the deputy president, acknowledged last week was a
"national emergency", the gangs have become the most potent symbols of the
anarchy sweeping the country.

Staggie, whose twin brother Rashaad was shot and set on fire by vigilantes
two years ago, is funding the United Democratic Alliance, which will
challenge the African National Congress (ANC) in elections next year. He
already controls most of the Cape Flats.

With wealth estimated at £10m, he leads the Hard Living gang, a
10,000-strong force of armed men who trade in drugs and death. He was tried
for the murder of a rival gangster earlier this year, but was acquitted.
People are scared to testify against him. Last week two witnesses to
another gangland murder were gunned down in a Cape Town suburb after they
agreed to appear in court.

Crime is no longer confined to the slums. In March six members of the
Junkie Kids, another gang, were executed outside the Waterfront, a tourist
development in the heart of the city. Another four gangsters were found
dead in a suburb last week.

People are growing nervous. Each day 63 people are murdered in South
Africa. An estimated 1m whites have left the country since Mandela was
elected in 1994. Others have moved from Johannesburg, the crime capital, to
Cape Town, which is regarded as safer - but now many of them are also
preparing to leave.

The police unit charged with tackling Cape Town's gangs believes they are
stronger than ever. Earning £150 a month, the 60 officers of the city's
anti-gang squad are outmanned, outgunned and frequently outwitted. When I
accompanied one patrol last week, officers carrying pump-action shotguns
and backed by an army unit swooped on homes believed to be used by
gangsters. In five raids they recovered £100, three crack cocaine pipes and
a small amount of marijuana.

The occupant of one house fired three shots through the bars of his front
door when the police arrived, then fled down an alley. The officers
returned his fire but he got away. Groups of residents threw stones at the
police. Nobody was arrested.

For the police, the temptations are great. With gangsters earning thousands
of pounds a week, many officers take bribes in exchange for turning a blind
eye. "Everybody needs money," said Ricky Offstander, a member of the unit.
"I would never take the money because these people are scum. But I
understand why some people do."

The biggest problem is the number of guns on the streets. In the Little
House on the Prairie, an AK-47 can be bought for £130. Guns pour in from
war zones across Africa.

With the police fighting a losing battle, groups of vigilantes opposed to
the gangs have sprung up. Pagad (People Against Gangsterism and Drugs), a
force of Islamic fundamentalists allegedly linked to Iran, has carried out
a series of revenge killings.

The prospect of Staggie becoming a political figure horrifies the police,
who fear he may end up in parliament. He reputedly pays the rents of many
people in the townships, where male unemployment runs at more than 70%.

Staggie smiled last week at the possibility of political office. "People
make out that I am some sort of psychopath," he said as his two children
played on his knee and armed men stood guard outside. "I just want to do my
bit for the community."

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

[End]