------------------------------------------------------------------- Epitope Gets FDA Approval For Opiate Test ('Reuters' Notes The Suburban Portland, Oregon, Company Is Almost Ready To Market A Device That Will Supposedly Detect Any Or All Drugs Of Abuse Using A Single Oral Specimen)Date: Wed, 03 Jun 1998 00:58:01 -0400 To: mapnews@mapinc.org From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) Subject: MN: US: Wire: Epitope Gets FDA Approval For Opiate Test Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Newshawk: Patrick Henry Pubdate: Mon, 01 Jun 1998 Source: Reuters EPITOPE GETS FDA APPROVAL FOR OPIATE TEST BEAVERTON, Ore., June 1 (Reuters) - Epitope Inc said Monday its research partner STC Technologies Inc has secured U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance for use of a test for opiate use with Epitope's Orasure device. Orasure is used to collect oral specimens. The test approved is called STC Opiates Metabolite Micro-Plate EIA. The approval follows similar clearance for tests for marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamines. Epitope is awaiting FDA clearance for a test for phencyclidine. Once that approval is granted Epitope plans to market a combined drugs-of-abuse panel that will detect any of the above drugs using a single OraSure specimen. In 1996, the worldwide market for laboratory-based, drugs-of-abuse testing was about $530 million, involving 35 million test panels.
------------------------------------------------------------------- Two Initiatives On Track, Others In Trouble ('Associated Press' Says Medical Marijuana Initiative 692 In Washington State Appears Headed For The Fall Ballot, Thanks To Strong Financial Backing - As Of May 1, Supporters Had Raised Nearly $400,000) From: "W.H.E.N. - Bob Owen - Olympia" (when@olywa.net) To: "-Hemp Talk" (hemp-talk@hemp.net) Subject: HT: Med MJ initiative on track Date: Mon, 1 Jun 1998 17:44:01 -0700 Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net Two initiatives on track, others in trouble By HAL SPENCER The Associated Press 06/01/98 5:43 PM Eastern OLYMPIA (AP) -- A measure that would allow sick people to smoke marijuana appears headed for the fall ballot as does a proposal to raise the minimum wage. But other citizen initiatives are struggling. Despite brave talk from backers, campaigns to repeal the state car tax, put new controls on abortion, and roll back property taxes all are showing signs they won't have enough voter signatures by the July 2 deadline to qualify for the Nov. 3 ballot. "If I were to bet, I'd say the marijuana initiative will make the ballot, and maybe the minimum-wage measure too," Sherry Bockwinkel, a veteran initiative campaigner, said Monday. "I think its going to be another year when our state votes on one or two measures, just like they have done historically," Bockwinkel said. Initiative 692, the marijuana measure, has two things going for it -- strong financial backing and paid signature-gatherers. The most recent state Public Disclosure Commission records show the Initiative 692 campaign had raised nearly $400,000 by May 1, enough to field paid signature-gatherers. "It's really hard to get the signatures without paying people to do it," said the measure's main spokesman, Tacoma physician Rob Killian. "I don't know anyone who can get anything on the ballot any more just with volunteer" signature-gatherers. Backers of the minimum-wage proposal, Initiative 688, are using only volunteers and still expect to meet the deadline for gathering 179,248 signatures of registered voters, said campaign spokesman David Groves. But Bockwinkel said that campaign is credible because it is backed by the Washington State Labor Council. "Even though they might not be paying people to get signatures, they have a lot of people working on the campaign," she said. That effort had raised about $55,000 by May 1, mostly from unions. Groves said the campaign is strong because it includes many grassroots groups, from labor to community and women's groups. The measure would eventually boost the minimum wage to $6.50. It also provides for annual increases to keep up with inflation. Spokesmen for Initiative 691 -- to eliminate the motor vehicle excise tax by 2000 -- did not return telephone calls left at their campaign office Monday. But Bockwinkel contends their campaign is in trouble. She noted they had raised little money -- $14,623 by May 1. "They don't have what it takes for this initiative," she said. The campaign expressed optimism in a Monday news release. "We've gathered signatures the old-fashioned way -- through blood, sweat and volunteers. With a lot of hard work by a lot of people, we look forward to qualifying the "No Car Tax" Initiative for the fall ballot," the release said. Another campaign to kill the car tax, Initiative 690, appears to be in similar straits. It has little money and also has relied on volunteers to collect signatures. Initiative 694 , which would ban certain late term abortions -- what backers call "partial-birth" abortions -- also appears unlikely to gather the necessary signatures, Bockwinkel said. "It's the first time I've done this," said Poulsbo family physician Robert Bethel of his work heading the initiative campaign. He said the effort has high hopes that its volunteers will be able to meet the July deadline for petition signatures. "I've been told we won't be able to it with volunteer" signature-gatherers, Bethel said. "All we can do is wait and see." A perennial effort by Thurston County resident Don Carter to roll back property taxes and limit future increases appears to be dead. Initiative 687 "is about 100,000 signatures short," Carter said.
------------------------------------------------------------------- Two Arrested In Fatal Shooting ('The Associated Press' Says A 47-Year-Old Tacoma Man And A 30-Year-Old Seattle Woman Have Been Arrested In Tukwila, Washington, For Allegedly Killing An Illegal 'Drug' Seller While Attempting To Rob Him) From: "W.H.E.N. - Bob Owen - Olympia" (when@olywa.net) To: "-Hemp Talk" (hemp-talk@hemp.net) Subject: HT: Two arrested in drug-prohibition shooting Date: Mon, 1 Jun 1998 17:41:09 -0700 Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net Two arrested in fatal shooting The Associated Press 06/01/98 9:28 AM Eastern TUKWILA, Wash. (AP) -- Two people have been arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of a 30-year-old Tukwila man during an apparent drug-related dispute in his apartment. A 47-year-old Tacoma man and a 30-year-old Seattle woman were being held at the Regional Justice Center in Kent for investigation of homicide. "We believe they were attempting to rob the victim," said Lt. Doug Partlow of the Tukwila Police Department. "He had drugs and money the (arrested) subjects wanted." The identities of the victim and the pair arrested were not released. Neighbors called police just before 4:30 a.m. Sunday to report sounds of a struggle in the apartment. When officers arrived, they found the victim on the floor with a gunshot wound to his head. Medics could not revive him and he was pronounced dead at the scene, Partlow said. The Tacoma man and Seattle woman were also in the apartment and were arrested without incident, Partlow said. Investigators believe they knew the victim. Two handguns were retrieved from the apartment floor. Partlow said one of them may be the weapon used in the shooting. He said he did not know what type of drugs were involved, but the arrested man had drugs on him and more were found in the apartment. The killing marks Tukwila's first homicide this year.
------------------------------------------------------------------- Medical Use Of Pot Legal In Colorado Until 1995 ('Rocky Mountain News' Gives An Update On The Coloradans For Medical Rights Ballot Initiative Campaign By Noting That Chris Paulson, Heading The Current Opposition To The Initiative, Co-Sponsored A Medical Marijuana Law In 1979 That Survived For Nearly Two Decades, Useless, Until It Was Repealed As 'Obsolete' In 1995) Date: Tue, 02 Jun 1998 08:49:46 -0400 To: DrugSense News ServiceFrom: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) Subject: MN: US CO: Medical Use Of Pot Legal In Colorado Until 1995 Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Newshawk: cohip@levellers.org (Colo. Hemp Init. Project) Source: Rocky Mountain News (CO) Author: Dan Luzadder, Rocky Mountain News Capitol Bureau Contact: letters@denver-rmn.com Mail: 400 W. Colfax, Denver, CO 80204 Phone: (303) 892-5000 Fax: (303) 892-5499 Website: http://www.denver-rmn.com/ Pubdate: Mon, 1 Jun 1998 MEDICAL USE OF POT LEGAL IN COLORADO UNTIL 1995 Even before it has won a spot on the November ballot, organized groups are clashing over a proposal to allow marijuana use for people with serious illnesses. But what few Coloradans -- including proponents of the initiative -- realize is that for nearly two decades, Colorado had a medical marijuana law that suspended criminal penalties for cancer and glaucoma patients who possessed marijuana. The 1979 law was repealed as "obsolete" in 1995. Legislative records also show that former Republican House Majority Leader Chris Paulson -- head of the citizen's group opposing the proposed initiative -- was among those who backed the marijuana law. Paulson voted for a bill in 1981 that made it clear that synthetic forms of marijuana and street pot could be legally obtained by patients to treat their symptoms. Paulson, in fact, was a co-sponsor of the legislation. In his role as lead critic of the marijuana initiative, Paulson said things have changed. "Fortunately, we have learned a lot more (about marijuana) since then," he said. "What we now know is that it is much more potent and damaging today than the stuff that was available 20 years ago." Coloradans for Medical Rights, the proponents of a well-financed medical marijuana initiative, have begun collecting petition signatures statewide to get the issue on the November ballot. It would allow marijuana use for people suffering from cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis and other serious illnesses. Citizens Against the Legalization of Marijuana, backed by local police agencies and district attorneys, is trying to keep the initiative from reaching voters. Colorado's earlier medical marijuana law apparently had little impact. The law put responsibility for administering the marijuana program in the hands of the chancellor of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, a facility that focuses on cancer research. Patients needed a doctor's certification and approval from a university-based committee of cancer researchers to obtain the drug. Dr. Vince Fulginiti, former UCHSC chancellor, asked lawmakers to repeal the statute as "obsolete" in 1995. Jeff Thompson, former public affairs director at the medical center, said Fulginiti requested the repeal after receiving a letter from a cancer patient in Breckenridge who and requested that he make marijuana available to her. "I don't think he (Fulginiti) really wanted to be caught up in supplying marijuana to people," Thompson said. Martin Chilcutt, a retired psychotherapist heading the group pushing the medical marijuana initiative, said he was surprised to learn of the now-defunct law. Laura Kriho, author of another ballot initiative on medical marijuana, said she was aware of the law but did not believe people seeking to use the drug for medicine ever benefited from it. Whether the program actually served any patients and, if so, how many, remains unclear. The program's principal cancer researcher, Dr. William Robinson, is now involved in cancer research in Australia. He could not be reached. Political battle lines in the marijuana initiative fight were drawn when the Colorado House and Senate both passed a resolution condemning the initiative, even before the signature drive began. Paulson's group and prominent state Republicans, including front-running GOP gubernatorial hopeful Bill Owens, brought former U.S. drug czar William Bennett to Colorado last month to speak against the initiative. Chilcutt and his group -- who have modeled their initiative on successful referendums in California and Arizona -- argue that many seriously ill Coloradans cannot tolerate FDA-approved prescriptions for pain, nausea, seizures and glaucoma, but can benefit from marijuana, used for centuries to treat such symptoms. Their initiative would allow certified patients to possess up to two ounces of marijuana and to grow up to 6 marijuana plants in their homes. Chilcutt's initiative would require doctors to certify that patients were qualified to possess marijuana by virtue of specific medical conditions outlined in the initiative. Identification cards would be issued and names placed in a confidential registry. Kriho's initiative would allow possession or cultivation of marijuana upon a recommendation by a physician that it could be helpful for treating pain or illness. Both initiatives would amend the state Constitution.
------------------------------------------------------------------- Appeal Judge Rules Not Allowing Medical Necessity Defense For Marijuana Is 'Immoral' - AIDS-Cancer Patient Peter McWilliams Ready For Trial (Bulletin From The Best-Selling Author Himself Notes Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Kym Worthy Ruled Today In Detroit That He Could Use The Medical Necessity Defense In His Marijuana Possession Trial - With URLs For Related Articles) Date: Mon, 01 Jun 1998 21:21:02 -0400 From: Scott DykstraReply-To: rumba2@earthlink.net To: rumba2@earthlink.net Subject: CanPat> [Fwd: Appeal Judge Rules Not Allowing Medical Necessity Defense for Marijuana Is "Immoral."] Forgive me if any of you have gotten this post earlier. I am just trying to spread the word for Peter. I spoke with him tonight and his spirit is positive. Amazingly, I'm not sure I could hold up so well under the pressure. Again, forgive me if this has double posted to any of you. Peace. Scott Dykstra http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/9584/ *** From: "Peter McWilliams" (peter@mcwilliams.com) To: "Peter McWilliams" (peter@mcwilliams.com) Subject: Appeal Judge Rules Not Allowing Medical Necessity Defense for Marijuana Is "Immoral." Date: Mon, 1 Jun 1998 17:46:21 +0100 June 1, 1998 - For Immediate Release Appeal Judge Rules Not Allowing Medical Necessity Defense for Marijuana Is "Immoral." AIDS-Cancer Patient Peter McWilliams Ready for Trial. Prosecution Balks. Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Kym Worthy ruled today that AIDS-cancer patient Peter McWilliams may use medical necessity as a defense in his marijuana possession trial. Judge Worthy ruled that, under current Michigan law, it would be "not just improper but immoral" to deny McWilliams the ability to present to a jury the fact that he uses marijuana to help treat his life-threatening medical condition. McWilliams was arrested for possession of seven "marijuana cigarettes" at Detroit Metro Airport on December 12, 1996. Original UPI story at: http://vh1380.infi.net/news/local/qdope19.htm) Detroit News story at: http://detnews.com/1997/metro/9706/06/06060114.htm Detroit Free Press Story at: http://vh1380.infi.net/news/health/qaids30.htm In October 1997, Wayne County prosecutors moved to have any evidence or testimony concerning McWilliams' medical condition banned from the courtroom, including testimony from McWilliams' doctors who recommended medical marijuana and supervise his use of it. In November 1997, the trial judge, the Honorable Tina Brooks Green, chief judge of the 34th District Court in Romulus, ruled that McWilliams could present his medical defense. A week later, Judge Green reversed herself. Detroit News Story at: http://detnews.com/1997/metro/9711/06/11060129.htm McWilliams appealed to the Wayne County Circuit Court, and today's ruling by Judge Worthy, a former Wayne County Prosecutor, reversed Judge Green's decision. Judge Worthy ruled that Judge Green's first decision was correct and that McWilliams should be allowed to present a medical necessity defense even though there has been no law in Michigan specifically permitting marijuana for medical use since 1987, when the state's previous medical marijuana law expired. "This allows us to present all the facts to a jury," said McWilliams' attorney, Richard Lustig, who filed the successful appeal. "Today's ruling does not say Mr. McWilliams was not guilty, but it does reaffirm his right to present to a jury his reason for possessing marijuana." Lustig based his appeal on Michigan law, rooted in English common law stating that if a man steals a rowboat to save a drowning person, that man is not guilty of stealing the boat. This is generally knows as the "necessity defense." In the medical area, if a mother breaks the speed limit to rush her child to the hospital, a jury is allowed to take the mother's medical necessity into account when deciding her guilt or innocence to a charge of speeding. "If Mr. McWilliams' does not keep down his anti-AIDS medications, which causes severe nausea, he will die," said Lustig. "Medical marijuana's antinausea effect permits Mr. McWilliams to continue his lifesaving medical treatment. Mr. McWilliams is breaking current drug laws in order to save his life. This is his medical necessity defense and, as Judge Worthy confirmed today, Michigan law already permits him to use it. Now it's up to a jury to decide if Mr. McWilliams' medical necessity was reason enough for breaking the law prohibiting the possession of marijuana." "I could not be more pleased," said McWilliams. "I am confident that a jury, knowing all the facts, will not send me to prison for taking the medication that helps keep me alive." However, Wayne County Appellate Prosecutor Jeff Kaminsky said his office might appeal Judge Worthy's ruling. Wayne County Prosecutor James O'Hair will make the ultimate decision. If an appeal is filed, it will delay McWilliams' trial at least another a year. If the Prosecutor's Office appeals that ruling, the trial will be put off until the next millennium. "If they appeal Judge Worthy's decision, it will not be because they think a higher court will rule differently," said McWilliams, "but because they want to stall for more time. No one wants to be seen as trying to send an AIDS-cancer patient to jail in an election year with public opinion overwhelmingly on the side of medical marijuana." Public opinion polls consistently show more than two-thirds of Americans believe an exception to marijuana laws should be made when people are sick. "At the same time," McWilliams continued, "the Prosecutor's Office hasn't had the courage, compassion, or practical good sense to say, 'We have more important crimes to spend our limited resources on than prosecuting sick people for taking their medicine.' If the Prosecutor's Office appeals, it will prove that they fear a jury's decision on this issue, that they want the status quo to continue, and that they want to keep prosecuting sick people while murderers, robbers, and rapists go free." Wayne County, which includes the city of Detroit, has one of the highest unprosecuted murder rates in the nation. "More people literally get away with murder in Wayne County than almost anywhere else in the country," McWilliams said. "Rather than making sure murder convictions don't get overturned, the Prosecutor's Office may use the appeal process keep a jury from finding out I have AIDS. Does this make any sense?" McWilliams, a best-selling author, was recently featured on the ABC News John Stossel Special Sex, Drugs, and Consenting Adults. http://www.abcnews.com/onair/abcnewsspecials/transcripts/specials_stossel980 526_trans.html McWilliams is publisher of the Medical Marijuana Magazine Online (www.marijuanamagazine.com) and is working on several books about medical marijuana, including A Question of Compassion: An AIDS-Cancer Patient Explores Medical Marijuana (http://www.mcwilliams.com/compassion.html) "I want my day in court. It has been seventeen months since my arrest. Let's put this matter before a Michigan jury, under current Michigan law, and let the people speak. This is a life-and-death issue the Prosecutor's Office is treating like a political football. Let a jury decide, and soon." How would a Detroit jury rule? In November 1997, the Detroit News asked its readers: "Should the state allow patients with cancer and other serious illnesses to get a prescription to use marijuana for pain and nausea relief?" The response was unanimous: Yes. Fourteen responses are at: http://detnews.com/1997/metro/9711/13/11130038.htm http://detnews.com/EDITPAGE/9711/28/letters/letters.htm CONTACTS: Peter McWilliams 213-650-8489 Richard Lustig 248-258-1600
------------------------------------------------------------------- Cocaine Was A Killer 34 Times Last Year (Typical Piece Of Biased Mainstream Journalism In 'The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel' About The 1997 Cocaine Body Count In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Fails To Note Such Things As Those Who Purposely Used The Drug To Commit Suicide, Allows The Medical Examiner To Get Away With Attributing To Crack Five Underweight Babies Probably Killed By Lack Of Social Services And Prenatal Care, Neglects Mentioning That Hundreds Of People Die From Alcohol, Tobacco And Prescription Drugs For Every Death Attributed To Cocaine, And Fails To Provide A Cost-Benefit Analysis Weighing The 34 Deaths Against The Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars Milwaukee Is Probably Paying To Sustain Cocaine Prohibition) Date: Mon, 01 Jun 1998 22:37:32 -0400 To: mapnews@mapinc.org From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) Subject: MN: US WI: Cocaine Was A Killer 34 Times Last Year Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Newshawk: compassion23@geocities.com (Frank S. World) Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI) Contact: jsedit@onwis.com Website: http://www.jsonline.com/ Pubdate: Mon, 01 Jun 1998 Author: Jamaal Abdul-Alim of the Journal Sentinel staff COCAINE WAS A KILLER 34 TIMES LAST YEAR It was the most lethal drug among those that claimed lives by accidental overdose Just months before Clerk of Circuit Court Gary Barczak found himself in the spotlight in October for buying more than 12 grams of cocaine, the drug had already claimed the lives of a counselor to juveniles and a Milwaukee County social worker. Those two people, as well as five babies of cocaine-abusing mothers, were among the 34 people who died in accidental cocaine deaths in Milwaukee last year. The deaths did not draw much attention -- certainly not the kind of attention created by a public official such as Barczak getting caught just buying the drug. Nevertheless, the deaths give some insight into the impact the drug has in Milwaukee. According to the recently released Milwaukee County medical examiner's 1997 Activity and Statistical Report, cocaine alone was responsible for 27 -- or 45% -- of the 60 accidental drug deaths in 1997. "And, cocaine in combination with another drug, or drugs, claimed another seven lives in 1997," the report says. As a result, 57% of the accidental drug deaths were attributed to cocaine or a combination of cocaine and another drug. For comparison, 24 of the 37 accidental drug deaths in 1996 -- 65% -- were attributed to cocaine or a combination of cocaine and another drug. In 1995, 27 of 44 accidental drug deaths -- 61% -- were attributed to cocaine or cocaine and another drug. And, in 1994, 40 of 67 accidental drug deaths -- 60% -- were attributed to cocaine or cocaine and another drug. In short, cocaine "continues to be the primary drug detected in drug deaths certified as accidental," the report says. The Journal Sentinel asked the medical examiner's office for more extensive information on the cocaine-related deaths than was in the report. That information shows that most of the accidental cocaine death victims in Milwaukee County last year were adult males in their 40s. The victims were single more often than married, and black more often than non-black. Most worked in service-oriented or low-skill jobs, usually involving manual labor. Two of the people who died from cocaine had careers in the field of social work. One of them, Gregory C. Kramoris, 50, worked as a Milwaukee County social worker and was responsible for managing outpatients at the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex -- a job relatives said he "did not like." The other, James Binns, 49, had worked as a counselor at Children's Court. Binns apparently held the position until a cocaine injection he took with some friends in February 1995 left him in a vegetative state. Binns died in April 1997. Among the cocaine-abusing mothers whose babies were born prematurely, one woman gave birth to a premature boy on Christmas morning 1996. The boy, named Lamont Jones Jr., died later that Christmas Day -- just three hours after he entered the world with cocaine in his system. (His death is considered a 1997 case because the medical examiner's office did not learn about the case until early last year.) Another woman left her baby -- born long before the pregnancy had reached full term -- in a vacant lot at the corner of N. 24th and W. Center streets. in December. The baby was later discovered by two neighborhood children on their way to school. The mother has never been found. The records also gave some demographic information about the cocaine-related deaths. Age and gender: Among adult women, who represented just five of the deaths, the oldest was a 60-year-old forklift operator. The youngest woman was a 24-year-old nurse's assistant found in an alley on the north side. The oldest male was a 57-year-old disabled veteran who died at his residence at a public housing complex in the 1300 block of E. Kane Place. The man had suffered from a post-traumatic stress syndrome. The youngest man was a 27-year-old temporary service employee who died in the emergency room at St. Joseph's Hospital. The youngest victims overall, of course, were the five babies born prematurely because of their mother's cocaine abuse. One of those mothers had been pregnant only 22 of the normal 40 weeks when she gave birth. Marital status: Of the 29 adult victims, only six were married and one was a widow. The rest were either divorced, separated, or never married. Occupation: Most of the victims worked in manual labor, service-oriented or low-skill jobs. Several of the victims had occupations listed simply as "laborer," "handyman," or "maintenance worker." The victims included four welders, a molder, two machine operators, a security guard, a cab driver, a waitress, a salesperson, a janitor, a painter, a nursing home orderly and a couple of auto body repairmen. At least two of the victims were unemployed; one was disabled. Ethnicity: Black men, many of whom were in their 40s and worked those manual labor jobs, represented half of the county's cocaine death victims in 1997, even though black people as a whole represent less than one-third of the county population. One of the victims was Hispanic; the rest were white. Residence: Only two of the adult cocaine death victims resided outside Milwaukee. One was from Elm Grove, the other from Muskego. Both men, however, died while in Milwaukee. As for the babies, one came from a woman living in Greenfield; the other four were from Milwaukee women. Time and place: Nearly half of the accidental cocaine deaths in 1997 took place during weekends. Fourteen of the victims were pronounced dead at an area hospital, nine of those in an emergency room. One of the accidental cocaine deaths took place while the victim was in police custody. Isaac Guillermo, 30, a self-employed auto mechanic, died last April after he swallowed some cocaine in an attempt to hide it from police. District Attorney E. Michael McCann recently called that tactic, which he described as being fairly common, as a "fiercely dangerous" thing to do. McCann made the remark after an investigation into the death of Edward Sims, 25, who died in police custody earlier this month after he apparently swallowed an "eight ball" -- or an eighth of an ounce -- of cocaine. Authorities say Sims swallowed the cocaine in an apparent last-ditch attempt to hide the drug from police. Sims will be on the medical examiner's report next year.
------------------------------------------------------------------- Parents Urged To Lead By Example In Drug Fight ('The Chicago Tribune' Discusses Drug-Use Prevention Strategies In The Context Of A Recent National Telephone Survey Of 500 Parents, Released Last Week By The Hazelden Foundation, The Minnesota-Based Coalition Of Treatment Centers, Which Found Only 23 Percent Of Parents Said They Forbid Their Children To Drink Alcohol Before They Reach Legal Age - About 60 Percent Tell Their Children They Prefer They Not Drink, But If They Do, The Parents Will Arrange For Transportation Home) Date: Tue, 02 Jun 1998 01:56:21 -0400 To: mapnews@mapinc.org From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) Subject: MN: US IL: Parents Urged To Lead By Example In Drug Fight Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Newshawk: Steve Young Pubdate: Mon, 01 June 1998 Source: Chicago Tribune (IL) Contact: tribletter@aol.com Website: http://www.chicago.tribune.com/ Author: Lisa Black and Jeff Coen PARENTS URGED TO LEAD BY EXAMPLE IN DRUG FIGHT As increasing numbers of teenagers experiment with drugs and alcohol, families and counselors are searching for new ways to tackle a persistent, insidious problem that has proved more complicated than urging youngsters to "just say no." Some urge a comprehensive approach of life-skills lessons, including classes on coping and self-esteem, beginning in early childhood. Others urge tougher enforcement of current laws and tougher discipline in the home. One survey concludes that parents should practice what they preach, particularly when it comes to alcohol use. "A major problem in society is the mixed messages kids get," says David Franson, assistant principal at Hinsdale Central High School. "By the time a kid reaches a certain age, he or she has been exposed to a staggering number of beer commercials." A national survey released last week by the Hazelden Foundation, the Minnesota-based coalition of treatment centers for drug and alcohol dependency, found only 23 percent of parents say they forbid their children to drink alcohol before they reach legal age. About 60 percent tell their children they prefer they not drink, but that if they do, the parents will arrange for transportation home, according to a recent telephone survey of 500 parents. Hazelden officials encourage parents to talk to their children about drug and alcohol use and develop a plan for special events such as proms. Other experts warn that there is no one-stop preventive or cure. "We have to ask ourselves, what are we doing in the school system to support and enhance topics like relationships?" said Henry Tews, director of Serenity House in Addison, which treats substance abusers. Tews favors lifelong, self-help programs in school and at home. "Self-sufficiency is important," he said. "You have to tell people it's time to grow up and not run away and use drugs." Lawrence Nikodem, clinical coordinator for addiction services at Naperville's Linden Oaks Hospital, said parents hold the key to preventing addiction. They should never become complacent in assessing their children's behavior, he said. While many symptoms of a drug or alcohol problem resemble typical adolescent behavior, parents should never dismiss behavior changes casually, Nikodem said. "You have to know who your kid is," Nikodem said, emphasizing the importance of the parent-child relationship. "You have to talk to them." Signs of trouble, experts say, include moodiness, a change in clothing preferences and friends, a rapid loss of interest in sports or a decline in grades. Parents also should watch for classic physical manifestations of substance abuse, such as heavy drowsiness or slurred speech, Nikodem said. If there are indications of a likely problem, such as finding drug paraphernalia among a child's belongings, the parent must confront the child, Nikodem said. "Never ignore something you suspect is going on," Nikodem said. "It's OK to be wrong when you confront your child, because if you don't, and there is a problem, it's going to get worse. Confronting them may save a life." Many DuPage County clinics, including Linden Oaks, offer free assessment sessions for youths and their families. Nikodem said that during such meetings, a counselor sits down with the teenager, and then with his or her family, in an attempt to determine if more help is necessary. Most clinics also offer drug screenings, he said, although some teenagers refuse to submit to such testing. "I tell parents who call me for advice to tell their kid they realize they could be wrong," Nikodem said. "I tell them to say, `This assessment will help me to understand more about what's going on. And if I'm wrong, this will certainly reveal that.' " Some parents who have dealt with a child's drug addiction recommend support groups such as Families Anonymous, a 12-step program for parents of children with drug abuse or behavior problems. "Every parent comes in thinking, `I'm going to learn to fix my kid,' " said one DuPage County mother, who asked not to be identified. "You learn the program is for you and the family." The mother said her daughter, now 20, began drinking in high school. The family had to learn to set boundaries and let their daughter suffer the consequences of her actions. For instance, the family is paying for the daughter's college courses as long as she stays sober. But they will not pay attorney costs that resulted from a DUI arrest. Some parents have resorted to a more extreme measure of testing their children's urine for drugs with home kits. One such test, Parent's Alert, includes a home urine test that can be mailed to a laboratory for the detection of drugs such as marijuana, cocaine and heroin. One Naperville mother, who asked that her name not be used, said used a home drug test three years ago when she suspected her then 15-year-old son was using marijuana. She said she read about the test in a newspaper article and had no qualms about using it. "You're talking about the well-being of your child," she said. "It's not anything horrible. You're saying that we have a problem, let's identify it and move on." The woman did uncover her son's drug problem and was able to get him to go to a rehabilitation center. Critics of home drug testing fear the tests can damage the relationship between parents and children, but the Naperville woman said that didn't happen in her case.
------------------------------------------------------------------- UV Medical Defense - Marijuana Use In Mammals (List Subscriber Posts URL For A Photo Showing Marijuana Use By A Cow, An Ancient Defense Adaptation To An Illness Called Excito-Toxic Neuroendocrine Stress Response, Caused By Harmful Ultraviolet Radiation And Other Sources Of Chemical Free Radicals)Date: Mon, 1 Jun 1998 15:59:07 -0700 (PDT) From: bc616@scn.org (Darral Good) To: hemp-talk@hemp.net Subject: HT: UV medical defense - Marijuana use in mammals Reply-To: bc616@scn.org Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net Marijuana use in mammals is an ancient defense adaptation to an illness called excito-toxic neuroendocrine stress response (ENSR). This disease is caused by harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation and other sources of chemical free radicals. For proof that mammals eat marijuana see: Linkname: great hemp photos! see a cow eat some kind bud! http://hss.sd54.bc.ca/School/Pages/student/individual/Sonia/pictures.html
------------------------------------------------------------------- President's Column - The National War On Drugs - Build Clinics, Not Prisons (Anti-Drug-War Editorial In 'The ACP-ASIM Observer,' Published By The American College Of Physicians, Urges Internists To Rethink Their Attitudes Toward Addiction To Illicit Drugs - Plus Commentary From Two Physicians) Subj: Text of ACP Edirorial From: "Tom O'Connell" (tjeffoc@sirius.com) Date: Sun, 5 Jul 1998 01:38:33 +0100 ACP-ASIM Observer June 1998 President's Column The national war on drugs: Build clinics, not prisons From the June 1998 ACP Observer, copyright A9 1998 by the American College of Physicians. By Harold C. Sox, FACP Current thinking about how to treat drug addiction is in a state of rapid flux. The basis of this revolution is the gradual accretion of knowledge about the pathophysiology, treatment and social consequences of drug addiction. All of this information is coming together into a coherent view that points toward needed changes in public policy. Since most drug addicts are adults with other medical disorders, internists need to be part of this revolution. Internists need to adapt their practice to new realities of treating drug addiction and must be leaders in seeking changes in public policy. This article will lay out the basic facts and their implications for physicians, patients and society. Addiction is a chronic disorder. The decision to start taking drugs is voluntary, although it is conditioned by heredity and environment. Most first-time users do not become addicted, but many eventually lose the ability to control their use of drugs and become addicted. Cure of the essential feature of addiction - craving for drugs following withdrawal - is possible but unlikely. In this sense, drug addiction is similar to diabetes or hypertension. The analogy between drug addiction and diseases like hypertension or diabetes is appropriate because both conditions produce permanent anatomic and functional changes that put the patient at risk for health problems. Addictive drugs can produce changes in brain pathways that persist long after a person stops taking drugs and place the individual at high risk of relapse. Therefore, internists must think in terms of lifelong treatment of drug addiction. Drug addiction is similar to diseases like hypertension, diabetes and asthma in other respects. Like many chronic diseases, successful treatment requires behavioral change, and poor compliance is a constant threat. For example, naltrexone is an opioid antagonist that works centrally to reduce craving for alcohol and opioids. It markedly reduces recidivism among alcoholics and opioid addicts, but opioid addicts show poor compliance and alcoholics aren't much better. Treatments One way to successfully treat opioid addiction is methadone, which is a weak-acting opioid agonist. Methadone does not produce euphoria, but it blocks symptoms of opioid withdrawal and can be used in steadily reduced doses to help opioid addicts withdraw from drug use. However, the use of methadone that causes the most misunderstanding and controversy is maintenance therapy, in which an addict takes a stable dose indefinitely. When coupled with a comprehensive package of health benefits, behavioral modification and social counseling, addicts using methadone maintenance undergo a remarkable change, at least when viewed as a population. Consumption of all illicit drugs declines; heroin use drops to 40% of pretreatment amounts in the first year and 15% in subsequent years. Criminal behavior drops dramatically, to 70% of pretreatment levels. Other health behaviors change, the most important of which is reduced use of needles; while 26% of all untreated addicts become infected with HIV, only 5% of treated addicts become HIV-positive. Because most studies of the effects of methadone maintenance therapy have not been randomized trials, there are undoubtedly other factors that contribute to these dramatic results. Nevertheless, it's a remarkable success story for those who choose treatment. Despite the successes attributed to methadone maintenance therapy, its use is still limited. Many who want treatment cannot obtain it. The FDA, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services, and state and local governments all share in the task of regulating methadone maintenance programs. Their regulations determine who enters programs, acceptable doses and even the number of service sites. Ten states forbid methadone maintenance programs entirely. Physicians who dispense methadone must apply for a license every year, and programs are subject to frequent inspections. Because of these regulations, there are only 35,000 methadone maintenance "slots" in New York City for approximately 200,000 injection drug addicts. All of these slots are occupied at any given time. (New York has licensed only five new methadone clinics in the past 20 years.) A 1995 Institute of Medicine study concluded that such regulations are unnecessary and that there are no medical reasons to regulate methadone any differently than any other FDA-approved medication. Societal costs Society pays an enormous cost because of addiction to illicit drugs. Shoplifting drives up the cost of goods. Muggings reduce tourism in our large cities. HIV infection requires costly treatment and causes premature death and reduced economic productivity. Incarcerating large numbers of drug addicts is extremely costly. Prison costs are the most rapidly increasing part of our federal drug budget; because of harsh sentencing policies for drug users, two-thirds of all prisoners are now addicts. What can internists do? Probably the most important action is to rethink our attitudes toward addiction to illicit drugs and to recognize it as a chronic disease rather than a manifestation of psychological impairment. As one expert has said, "Drug use is a choice, addiction is not." We need to open our minds to methadone maintenance, which is a pharmacologically sound approach to minimizing the harm from addiction. Last July, a group of physician leaders, Physician Leadership on National Drug Policy, issued a statement calling upon physicians to learn more about substance abuse and its treatment. The group also called upon political leaders to reallocate federal and state drug program resources toward prevention and treatment, which reduces the demand for drugs, and away from programs that have tried, unsuccessfully, to prevent illicit drugs from entering the United States. Changing government policy on such controversial issues will require the support of physicians for adults. I hope ACP-ASIM will take up this matter during the coming year and expend considerable effort to influence national policy on illicit drugs. ACP-ASIM will need the support of its members if we are to play our role as a professional organization whose first priority is to address the needs of our patients, whatever their station and whatever their affliction. *** Subj: Re: LTE re: ACP Observer June 1998 pg.14 (Dr. Sox) From: "Tom O'Connell" (tjeffoc@sirius.com) Date: Sat, 4 Jul 1998 20:48:08 +0100 Rick Bayer references an editorial which is appearing in the administrative journal of the American College of Physicians, "ACP Observer;" it's a bombshell. For decades, one of the most important reasons for public acceptance of the necessity for our destructive drug policy has been the passivity of organized medicine. With the exception of a few courageous mavericks, like Lester Grinspoon (a true hero), few well-known physicians have directly challenged the validity of government pronouncements on drugs and drug policy. Dr. Jerome Kassirer's somewhat timid and restricted objection (NEJM, Feb. '97) to their heavy-handed attempt to practice the usual intimidation in the wake of 215 was huge. It arrested the process and got the issue of MJ referred to the IOM, which will almost certainly give it a green light in December. Experimental laboratory evidence is accumulating which casts serious doubt on the validity of drug prohibition, despite the frantic efforts of Leshner and others to put their pro-prohibition spin on it. Undoubtedly, the generalized disenchantment with the drug war uncovered by the UN session and the ad in the NYT have also had a major effect. I urge all to read the editorial for yourselves and use the handy form at the website to send a message to Dr. Sox. He deserves our both our praise and congratulations. My letter to him will be posted separately. Rick's appears below. Tom O'Connell >To the editor: > >Dr. Sox has written a very thoughtful and long overdue editorial in the >ACP Observer, June 1998, President's Column titled: "The National War on >Drugs: Build Clinics, Not Prisons" >http://www.acponline.org/journals/news/jun98/drugwar.htm. > >The absolute failure of the War on Drugs is unquestioned by the majority >of Americans. There are some estimates that the costs for this >American-style law-enforcement prohibition exceed $100 billion dollars >annually. In addition, we are destroying people and countries such as >Colombia with Viet Nam style raids and defoliants. The actual health >and environmental costs are unquantifiable and the loss of human life is >both unnecessary and obscene. Substance abuse is a medical and public >health problem and should be treated as such. The stroke of an ink pen >in the White House could eliminate much of this carnage overnight. As >Dr. Sox states, prisons, war, and violence are not the appropriate >answer to this health problem. > >Dr. Sox did an excellent job explaining the facts about methadone >maintenance. We need good clinical research into appropriate medical >methods to minimize harm to all members of society. We need to know why >the Dutch have half the regular consumption of cannabis that we in the >U.S do along with very little "hard-drug" use and how the Swiss have cut >crime with medically supervised heroin maintenance. Our own Health and >Human Services Department recently acknowledged that needle exchange >works to prevent HIV infection without encouraging IV drug use but for >political reasons, offers no funding to help prevent AIDS in our >communities. The California Medical Association recently called for >rescheduling of marijuana out of Schedule I so doctors can prescribe it >when it is the best treatment option for their patients. The time has >come for "Drug Peace", while science continues its investigations. > >We physicians need to make sure that decisions regarding drugs and >health care are made by compassionate physicians and other health care >experts who have no political baggage about appearing "soft on crime". >Decisions made by politicians and DEA police seldom have any scientific >validity or compassion. The "War on Drugs" does not belong in the exam >room and it should not be a "War on Patients and their Doctors". > >It may interest some to know that after the Harrison Narcotics Act of >1914, the Treasury Department started putting doctors in prisons during >the 1920s for continuing maintenance therapy to addicts and also that >the AMA vigorously opposed the Cannabis Tax Act of 1937 which caused >cannabis to be removed from the U.S. Drug Formulary in 1941. To get >updated on this 20th Century phenomenon, I highly recommend "Drug >Crazy" by Mike Gray (Random House 1998) and a visit to the website of >Physician Leadership on National Drug Policy >http://caas.caas.biomed.brown.edu/plndp/ to support their common-sense >platform . In the mean time, the time has come to speak out for our >patients, for our communities, and for our country. Again, I wish to >thank Dr. Sox for educating our ACP, demonstrating leadership, and >expressing those desirable clinical traits of scientific validity, >compassion, and common-sense. > >Richard Bayer, MD >Board Certified, Internal Medicine >Member, ACP-ASIM >6800 SW Canyon Drive >Portland, OR 97225 >503-292-1035 (voice) >503-297-0754 (fax) >ricbayer@teleport.com *** Subj: Letter to Dr. Sox From: "Tom O'Connell" (tjeffoc@sirius.com) Date: Sat, 4 Jul 1998 20:50:39 +0100 Below is my letter to Dr. Ellis Sox, president of the ACP. I'm not sure that he realizes the extent to which his editorial will stir the hornets' nest. If he doesn't, he will soon enough. McC will have a cow when he reads it. Editorial is at: http://www.acponline.org/journals/news/jun98/drugwar.htm Dear Dr. Sox, Please accept the sincere congratulations of a surgical colleague on your courageous editorial in the ACP Observer. Your acknowledgement of the enormous societal and individual damage produced by doctrinaire enforcement of our sadly misinformed federal drug policy is as welcome as it is overdue. For far too long, the federal government has been a most effective lobbyist for its own policy; able to intimidate potential critics into a passive acceptance of drug prohibition, even as the cost of its failures mounted and the size of the world-wide criminal market it enables ultimately reached an estimated four hundred billion dollars. When historians of the Twenty-First Century look back on the folly of this policy run amok, they may well be tempted to equate its magnitude with that of federally approved chattel slavery which endured for eight decades after our founding and nearly cost our existence as a nation. They will mark the beginning of its reversal as that time when courageous medical editorialists like yourself and Dr. Jerome Kassirer added the weight of their reputations to the lonely voice of Dr. Grinspoon and a few others who have been articulating basic truths which most of us have known for years. Fiercely doctrinaire partisans of a military-style drug policy will have extreme difficulty in resisting a searching, evidence-based review of our drug policy when such has been demanded by sober and responsible leaders of organized medicine, although they will undoubtedly try. Be prepared for sharp criticism. Congratulations on a brave decision which places you in the vanguard of history . Sincerely, Thomas J. O'Connell, MD, FACS contact info
------------------------------------------------------------------- Focus Alert Number 64 - '60 Minutes' (DrugSense Asks You To Write A Letter Protesting CBS News' Decision To Revive The 'Crack Baby' Myth - Plus Lots Of Research To Cite) Date: Mon, 01 Jun 1998 15:02:42 -0700 To: mgreer@mapinc.org From: Mark Greer (MGreer@mapinc.org) Subject: FOCUS Alert No. 64 Sixty Minutes FOCUS Alert No .64 Sixty Minutes WRITE A LETTER - HELP CHANGE THE WORLD ABC ran "sex Drugs and Consenting Adults" last week and we gave them kudos. CBS ran a piece last night (Sunday) on the old "Crack Baby" myth. Time to slap their wrist. It was a rerun but they still need to be corrected. Please write a brief note to them using one or more of the sites and facts posted below. Thanks to Kendra Wright and Common Sense for Drug Policy for the solid research on the subject. If not YOU, Who? If not NOW, When? *** PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER OR TELL US WHAT YOU DID ( Letter, Phone, fax etc.) Please post your letters or report your action to the MAPTalk list if you are subscribed, or return a copy to this address by simply hitting REPLY to this FOCUS Alert or E-mailing to MGreer@mapinc.org *** CONTACT INFO 60 Minutes Don Hewitt, Executive Producer CBS-TV 524 West 57th Street New York NY 10019-2985 212-975-2006 212 975 2019 Fax Email: 60M@cbsnews.com (Verified) NOTE: We are told that the "M" in the email address must be a capitol "M." *** NOTE: Scanned Doc - Typos are mine Crack Baby Myth Summary: Cocaine use, like other drug use, is not advisable during pregnancy. Nonetheless, dozens of studies now indicate that (I) the pharmacological impact of cocaine has been greatly exaggerated, (2) other factors are responsible for many of the ms previously associated with cocaine use, and (3) political and legal responses have done more to exacerbate than alleviate the situation of poor and/or drug-using pregnant women. Observers participating in blind studies which do not identify which infants have been exposed to cocaine, report cocaine exposed infants to be indistinguishable from those who were not exposed. Sources! Hadeed, A.J. & Siegel, S.R.. (1989). Maternal cocaine use during pregnancy: effect on the newborn infant. Pediatrics 84. 205-210. Neuspiel, D.R. & Hamel, S.C. (1991). Cocaine and infant behavior. Cocaine/Crack Research Workina Groan Newsletter. 2. 14-25. Ryan, L., Stirlich, S. & Finnegan, L. (1987). Cocaine abuse in pregnancy: effects on the fetus and newborn. Neurotoxicolopy Teratology. 157. 686-690. Well-controlled studies find minimal or no increased risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) among cocaine-exposed infants. Sources: Baucimer, H., Zuckennan, B., McClain, M.5 Frank, D~, Fried, L.E., & Kayne, H. (1988). Risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome among infants with in utero exposure to cocaine. Journal of Pediatrict 113.831-834. Note: Early studies which reported a greatly increased risk of SIDS did not control for socioeconomic characteristics). Chavez, C}.F~, Mulinare, J., & Cordero, 3.F. (1989). Maternal cocaine use during early pregnancy as a risk factor for congenital anomalies. JAMA. 262. 795-798. Chasnoff, 1.3., Hunt C., & lucifer, R., et. al. (1986). Increased risk of 511)5 and respiratory pattern abnormalities in cocaine-exposed infants. Pediatric Researcit 20.425 A. Riley, 5.0., Brodsl:y, N.L. & Porat R. (1988). Risk for SIDS in infants with in utero cocaine exposure: a prospective study. Pediatric Researc~ 23. 454A. Among the general population there has been no detectable increase in birth defects which may be associated with cocaine use during pregnancy. Source: Martin, M.L., Khowy, M.J., Cordero, S.F. & Waters, 0.D. (1992). Trends in rates of multiple vascular disruption defects, Atlanta, 1968-1989. Teratology. 45.647-653. The lack of quality prenatal care is associated with prematurity, low birth weight, and other fetal development problems. Klein, L., & Goldenberg, R.L. (1990). Prenatal care and its effect on prcAerm birth and low birth weight. In: Merkatz:, I.R. & Thompson, J.E., eds. New perspectives on prenatal care 501-529. Elsevier. Mac(Gregor, S.N., Keith, L.G., Bachicha, J.A. & Chasnoffl I.J. (1989). Cocaine abuse during pregnancy: correlation between prenatal care and prenatal outcome. Obstetrics and Gvnecolopv. 74.882-885. Provision of quality prenatal care to heavy cocaine users (with or without drug treatment) has been shown to significantly improve fetal health and development. Source: Charotte, C., Youchah, I, & Freda. M.C (1995) Cocaine use during pregnancy and low birth weight: the impact of prenatal care and drug treatment Seminars in Perinatolopy. 19.293-300. Criminalizing substance abuse during pregnancy discourages substance-using or abusing women from seeking prenatal care, drug treatment, and other social services, and sometimes leads to unnecessary abortions. Sources.' Pollit K. (1990). Fetal rights: anew assault on feminism. (1990). Natio~ 250.409-418. Cole, H.M. (1990). Legal interventions during pregnancy: court-ordered medical treatment and legal penalties for potentially harmful behavior by pregnant women. JAAM. 264.2663-2670. Polan, M.L., Dombrowski, M.P., Ager, J.W., & Sokol, RJ. (1993). Pwii~pregnant drug users: enhancing the flight from care. Druct and Alcohol Deoendence. 31 199-203. Koren, 0., Gladstone, D. Robeson, C. & Robjeux, I. (1992). The perception of teratogenic risk of cocaine. Teratology. 46. 567-571. Overloaded child welfare services are often unable to find homes for otherwise healthy children branded as "crack babies." Sources: (1990, May 19). New York Times. (1990, September21). New York Times. Neuspiel, D. (1994). Infant 'abandonment' by drug-using mothers: blaming the victims? Petteri. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. 148.437-438. Neuspiel, D., Zingrnan, T.M., Templeton, V.H., DiStabile, P., & Drucker, E. (1993). Custody of cocaine-exposed newborns: determinants of discharge decisions American Jolund of Public Heal~ 83.1726-1729. Pejoratively labeling children lowers teacher and parent expectations. Sources: Rosenthal, R., & Jacobson, L. (1968). Pvsunalion in the classroom: teacher expectation and pupils' intellectual development~ New York: Holt Rinehart & Winston. Neuspiel, D.R. On pejorative labeling of cocaine exposed children. (1993). Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment 10. 407. Gillung, S. & Dwyer, A. (1977). Labels and teacher expectations. Exceotional ChiidrCrL 43. 464465 Presented with children randomly labeled "cocaine-exposed" and "normal," child care professionals ranked the performance of the "cocaine-exposed" children below that of "normal." Source! Thurman, SW, Brobeil, RA., Duccette, J.P., & Hurt, H. (1994). Prenatally exposed to cocaine: does the label matter? Journal of Earlv intervention 18. 119-130. *** Sample Letter (Sent) Dear 60 Minutes: The piece on last Sundays show about "crack babies" has helped to increase the hysteria and inaccuracy that has been foisted upon the American public for far too long on drug issues in general and the "Crack Baby myth" in particular. I am amazed that a show with the reputation of 60 minutes could go so far afield from facts, science, and reason as to air this nonsense again. Please see the FACTS below and consider contacting us as part of your production and research process for any future segments pertaining to drug issues. We can provide experts, facts, and accuracy. Whoever you used as an information resource for this show apparently cannot. Thank you P.S. I suspect the ACLU letter writing effort that you referred to in the same piece was more an attempt to get you to report accurately than one of attempted censorship. *** Mark Greer Media Awareness Project (MAP) inc. d/b/a DrugSense MGreer@mapinc.org http://www.DrugSense.org/ http://www.mapinc.org
------------------------------------------------------------------- Dan Rather Tonight (Oregon Activist Says The CBS Evening News Will Feature An Eight-Minute Story On Efforts By Kentucky Farmers To Bring Back A Hemp Industry) From: "sburbank" (sburbank@orednet.org) Subject: Dan Rather tonite Date: Mon, 1 Jun 1998 14:11:50 -0700 NEWS RELEASE CBS Television Network "60 Minutes" to preview KY Hemp for Monday night's CBS Evening News *Monday June 1, 1998 CBS Evening News Monday night, Dan Rather will take an eight minute look into issues surrounding Kentucky's effort to legalize industrial hemp in the United States. The program will feature Andy Graves, President of the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative and his father, Jake Graves, a hemp grower from the early 1940's.
------------------------------------------------------------------- The CBS Evening News With Dan Rather (The Transcript Of A Feature By Sharyl Attkisson About Would-Be Kentucky Hemp Farmers) Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 07:28:52 +0000 From: pfx (jahemp@DAFFODIL.InfoChan.COM) Reply-To: pfx@DAFFODIL.InfoChan.COM Subject: CanPat - Fwd: Dan Rather, Hemp & Andy Graves Sender: owner-cannabis-patriots-l@teleport.com Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1998 12:19:59 -0400 From: Joe Hickey (agfuture@kih.net) Subject: Dan Rather, Hemp & Andy Graves TRANSCRIPT The CBS Evening News June 1, 1998 DAN RATHER, anchor: Tonight's Eye on America investigates a little known aspect of this country's laws, attitudes and regulations about drugs. Case in point, US farmers who want to switch cash crops from tobacco to hemp, used in clothing and other products. The problem? Growing hemp is bad because it's in the marijuana weed family. So is this reefer madness or wise policy? CBS' Sharyl Attkisson looked into it. SHARYL ATTKISSON reporting: The Graves family has been farming this land, nestled in Kentucky horse country, since the Civil War. Mr. ANDY GRAVES: It's got some grain in it still. Mr. JAKE GRAVES: Oh. ATTKISSON: Now Andy Graves is running the farm, and he's coming to grips with a new reality about the family's cash crop: tobacco. Mr. A. GRAVES: It's such an unsure future, at this particular day and time. ATTKISSON: You think your future is not in tobacco? Mr. A. GRAVES: Oh, I don't think so. No, I'm afraid I'd--I would be foolish to think that--probably that there would be a great future in growing tobacco. ATTKISSON: So Andy thinks his future is in another crop once grown on thisland... Mr. A. GRAVES: Here it is. ATTKISSON: ...a strong fiber called hemp that he thinks could help save the family farm. Where did you get this? Mr. A. GRAVES: That's from Ontario in Canada. ATTKISSON: From Canada because it's illegal to grow hemp in the US. Hemp is in the cannabis family, a non-narcotic look-alike of its close cousin, marijuana. While the difference is clear to Andy Graves, he can't seem to convince the government. Mr. A. GRAVES: We've run into a man named McCaffrey, who may be a good general but he doesn't know beans about farming. ATTKISSON: That would be General Barry McCaffrey, the nation's drug czar. He insists anyone who wants to grow hemp has a hidden agenda: to legalize pot. General BARRY McCAFFREY (Drug Czar): It's just a subterfuge, to be honest, to make it impossible for law enforcement to maintain the laws of the United States against marijuana production. (Footage of a vintage government film called "Hemp for Victory" touting hemp production) ATTKISSON: Ironically, the government once begged farmers to grow hemp, producing this film during World War II. (Footage of vintage government film, "Hemp for Victory") ATTKISSON: Andy's father, Jake Graves... Mr. J. GRAVES: Here I am weighing the hemp. ATTKISSON: ...was one of the farmers who did his patriotic duty back then. Mr. J. GRAVES: They desperately needed it for the parachutes, originally, because we did not have nylon and rayon at that time. ATTKISSON: After the war, farmers turned to other crops and didn't object in the 1970s when the US outlawed the growing of all cannabis, including non-narcotic hemp. But in the '90s, hemp is being rediscovered. It grows without pesticides, is biodegradable and is used in everything from clothing to car parts. While Andy Graves fights for a piece of the action, British farmers are planting their sixth crop, firmly convinced that hemp is not a drug. Mr. IAN LOWE (British Hemp Producer): If you do try to smoke it, you would need a joint the size of a telegraph pole to--to get high on it. ATTKISSON: But in the US, hemp can't seem to shake its negative image because the cause has been embraced by the movement to legalize pot, much to Andy Graves' dismay. Are you the kind of guy that is looking to sort of legalize marijuana through the means of getting hemp grown? Mr. A. GRAVES: Do I look like somebody that's doing that? Heavens, no. ATTKISSON: To prove it, Graves is going to court. He's leading a group of Kentucky farmers suing the federal government to bring back the crop that was once their heritage. In Lexington, Kentucky, I'm Sharyl Attkisson for Eye on America. *** DAN RATHER, anchor: And that's part of our world tonight. For the CBS EVENING NEWS, Dan Rather reporting. Thank you for joining us. Good night.
------------------------------------------------------------------- Risky Herbicide (Staff Editorial In The Waco, Texas, 'Tribune-Herald' Opposes The Use Of Tebuthiuron To Eradicate Cocaine In Columbia) Date: Thu, 04 Jun 1998 00:14:20 -0400 To: mapnews@mapinc.org From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) Subject: MN: US TX: Editiorial: Risky Herbicide Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Newshawk: John Wilson (www.rxmarihuana.com) Pubdate: Mon, 01 Jun 1998 Source: Waco Tribune-Herald (TX) Contact: letters@mail.iamerica.net Author: Editorial Board, Rowland Nethaway, Senior Editor RISKY HERBICIDE As we found out in the Vietnam War and in Desert Storm, lethal chemicals can be as villainous an enemy as the enemy itself. In Columbia, the enemy in America's "drug war" cross-hairs is drug cultivation. U.S. and Columbian officials must not unleash a poison that could add to the war's devastation. The poison in question is Tebuthiuron, which is being considered as a new weapon in the effort to eradicate coca and poppy crops. Dow Chemical, which produces Tebuthiuron, warns that the substance is meant only for pinpoint application, such as weeds on an industrial site. "It is our desire that this product not be used for illicit crop eradication," said a Dow spokesman. Fears center around widespread contamination, water pollution, poisoning of inhabitants around the targeted fields and more. "Overkill" is not always a word that will deter plans in a war. But in the "drug war," thoughts of mass-applying a dangerous substance like this should be stopped dead.
------------------------------------------------------------------- Still Seeing Red - The CIA Fosters Death Squads In Colombia ('The Progressive' Says In The Name Of Fighting Drugs, The Central Intelligence Agency Financed New Military Intelligence Networks In Colombia In 1991, But The New Networks Did Little To Stop Drug Traffickers - Instead, They Incorporated Illegal Paramilitary Groups Into Their Ranks And Fostered Death Squads) Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1998 15:50:26 -0400 To: mapnews@mapinc.org From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) Subject: MN: US/Colombia: Still Seeing Red: The CIA Fosters Death Squads In Colombia Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/ Newshawk: Paul Wolf (paulwolf@icdc.com) Source: Progressive (WI) Contact: progmag@igc.apc.org Pubdate: June 1998 Author: Frank Smyth STILL SEEING RED: THE CIA FOSTERS DEATH SQUADS IN COLOMBIA Back in 1989, the CIA built its first counter-narcotics center in the basement of its Directorate of Operations headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Since then, the newly renamed "crime and narcotics center" has increased four-fold, says CIA spokeswoman Anya Guilsher. She says she cannot comment about any specific counter-drug operations, except to say that the agency is now conducting them worldwide. The CIA was established in 1947 as a frontline institution against the Soviet Union. Today, nine years after the Berlin Wall fell, the agency is seeking a new purpose to justify its $26.7 billion annual subsidy. Besides the crime and narcotics center, the CIA now runs a counter-terrorism center, a center to stymie the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and even an ecology center to monitor global warming and weather patterns, including El Nino. George J. Tenet, the Clinton Administration's new Director of Central Intelligence, recently told Congress the United States faces new threats in "this post-Cold War world" that are "uniquely challenging for U.S. interests." But the CIA remains a Cold War institution. Many officers, especially within the clandestine operations wing, still see communists behind every door. They maintain warm relationships with rightist military forces worldwide that are engaging in widespread human-rights abuses. These ties conflict with the agency's putative goal of fighting drugs, since many of the rightist allies are themselves involved in the drug trade. Take Colombia. In the name of fighting drugs, the CIA financed new military intelligence networks there in 1991. But the new networks did little to stop drug traffickers. Instead, they incorporated illegal paramilitary groups into their ranks and fostered death squads. These death squads killed trade unionists, peasant leaders, human-rights, journalists, and other suspected "subversives." The evidence, including secret Colombian military documents, suggests that the CIA may be more interested in fighting a leftist resistance movement than in combating drugs. Thousands of people have been killed by the death squads, and the killings go on. In April, one of Colombia's foremost human rights lawyers, Eduardo Umana Mendoza, was murdered in his office. Umana's clients included leaders of Colombia's state oil workers' union. Reuters estimated that 10,000 people attended his funeral in Bogota. Human rights groups suspect that Umana's murder may have been carried out by members of the security forces supporting or operating in unison with paramilitary forces. At the funeral, Daniel Garcia Pena, a Colombian government official who was a friend of Umana's, told journalists that before his death Umana had alerted authorities that state security officials along with security officers from the state oil company were planning to kill him. The killings are mounting at a terrible pace. In February, a death squad mowed down another leading human rights activist, Jesus Maria Valle Jaramillo. He had pointed a finger at the military and some politicians for sponsoring death squads. "There is a clear, coordinated strategy of targeting anyone involved in the defense of human rights," says Carlos Salinas of Amnesty International. "Every statement of unconditional support by U.S. lawmakers only encourages these kinds of attacks." A new debate is taking place today between human rights groups and the Clinton Administration over U.S. aid to Colombia. The Clinton Administration has escalated military aid to Colombia to a record $136 million annually, making Colombia the leading recipient of U.S. military aid in this hemisphere. Now the Administration is considering even more, including helicopter gunships. Colombia did not figure prominently on the world stage back in late 1990 and early 1991. Germany was in the process of reunification, Iraq's Saddam Hussein had just invaded Kuwait, and El Salvador was negotiating an end to its long civil war. But the Bush Administration was not ignoring Colombia. It was increasing the number of U.S. Army Special Forces (or Green Beret) advisers there. And the CIA was increasing the number of agents in its station in Bogota -- which soon became the biggest station in Latin America. "There was a very big debate going on [over how to allocate] money for counter-narcotics operations in Colombia," says retired Colonel James S. Roach Jr., the U.S. military attache and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) country liaison in Bogota in the early 1990s. "The U.S. was looking for a way to try to help. But if you're not going to be combatants [yourselves], you have to find something to do." The United States formed an inter-agency commission to study Colombia's military intelligence system. The team included representatives of the U.S. embassy's Military Advisory Group in Bogota, the U.S. Southern Command in Panama, the DIA, and the CIA, says Roach, who was among the military officers representing the DIA. The commission, according to a 1996 letter from the Defense Department to Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, recommended changes in Colombia's military intelligence networks to make them "more efficient and effective." In May 1991, Colombia completely reorganized its military intelligence networks "based on the recommendations made by the commission of U.S. military advisers," according to the secret Colombian reorganization order, which Human Rights Watch made public in 1996. The U.S. commission of advisers backed the reorganization plan ostensibly as part of the drug war. Yet the secret Colombian order itself made no mention anywhere in its sixteen pages or corresponding appendices about gathering intelligence against drug traffickers. Instead, the order instructed the new intelligence networks to focus on leftist guerrillas or "the armed subversion." The forty-one new intelligence networks created by the order directed their energies toward unarmed civilians suspected of supporting the guerrillas. One of these intelligence networks, in the oil refinery town of Barrancabermeja in Colombia's strife-torn Magdalena Valley, assassinated at least fifty-seven civilians in the first two years of operation. Victims included the president, vice president, and treasurer of the local transportation workers union, two leaders of the local oil workers union, one leader of a local peasant workers union, two human rights monitors, and one journalist. Colonel Roach says the Defense Department never intended the intelligence networks to foster death squads. But Roach says he can't speak for the CIA, which was more involved in the intelligence reorganization and even financed the new networks directly. "The CIA set up the clandestine nets on their own," says Roach. "They had a lot of money. It was kind of like Santa Claus had arrived." The secret Colombian order instructed the military to maintain plausible deniability from the networks and their crimes. Retired military officers and other civilians were to act as clandestine liaisons between the networks and the military commanders. All open communications "must be avoided." There "must be no written contracts with informants or civilian members of the network; everything must be agreed to orally." And the entire chain of command "will be covert and compartmentalized, allowing for the necessary flexibility to cover targets of interest." Facts about the new intelligence networks became known only after four former agents in Barrancabermeja began testifying in 1993 about the intelligence network there. What compelled them to come forward? Each said the military was actively trying to kill them in order to cover up the network and its crimes. By then the military had "disappeared" four other ex-agents in an attempt to keep the network and its operations secret. Since the military was already trying to kill them, the agents decided that testifying about the network and its crimes might help keep them alive. Saulo Segura was one ex-agent who took this gamble. But rather than prosecuting his superiors over his and others' testimony, Colombia's judicial system charged and imprisoned Segura. In a 1996 interview in La Modelo, Bogota's maximum-security jail, Segura told me he hadn't killed anyone and that his job within the network was limited to renting office space and handling money. Segura then glanced about nervously before adding, "I hope they don't kill me." Two months later, on Christmas Eve, Segura was murdered inside his cellblock. His murder remains unsolved; the whereabouts of the other three ex-agents is unknown. No Colombian officers have been prosecuted for ordering the Barrancabermeja crimes. In 1994, Amnesty International accused the Pentagon of allowing anti-drug aid to be diverted to counterinsurgency operations that lead to human rights abuses. U.S. officials including General Barry R. McCaffrey, the Clinton Administration drug czar who was then in charge of the U.S. Southern Command, publicly denied it. But back at the office, McCaffrey ordered an internal audit. It found that thirteen out of fourteen Colombian army units that Amnesty had specifically cited for abuses had previously received either U.S. training or arms. Amnesty made these documents public in 1996. (Full disclosure: I provided the internal U.S. documents to Amnesty; Winifred Tate and I provided the secret Colombian order to Human Rights Watch.) Colombian military officers, along with some of their supporters in the United States, say the line between counterinsurgency and counter-drug operations in Colombia is blurry, as Colombia's leftist guerrillas are more involved today than ever before in drug trafficking. Indeed, they are. For years, about two-thirds of the forces of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and about half the forces of the National Liberation Army (ELN) have been involved in the drug trade, mainly protecting drug crops, according to both U.S. intelligence and leftist sources. Colombia's rightist paramilitary groups, however, are even more involved in the drug trade, and they have been for a decade. Back in 1989, Colombia's civilian government outlawed all paramilitary organizations after a government investigation had found that the Medellin drug cartel led by the late Pablo Escobar had taken over the largest ones. At the time, Escobar and his associates were fiercely resisting U.S. pressure on the Colombian government to make them stand trial in the United States on trafficking charges. They took control of Colombia's strongest paramilitaries and used them to wage a terrorist campaign against the state. These same paramilitaries, based in the Magdalena Valley, were behind a wave of violent crimes, including the 1989 bombing of Avianca flight HK-1803, which killed 111 passengers. Investigators concluded that Israeli, British, and other mercenaries, led by Israeli Reserve Army Lieutenant Colonel Yair Klein, had trained the perpetrators in such techniques. In February, Klein and three other former Israeli reserve officers, along with two Colombians, were indicted in absentia for their alleged involvement in these crimes. The CIA bears some responsibility for the proliferation of drug trafficking in the Magdalena Valley since it supported rightist counterinsurgency forces who run drugs. But the CIA has also helped combat drug trafficking in Colombia. In other words, different units within the agency have pursued contrary goals. The CIA's most notable success in the drug war was the 1995-1996 operations that, with the help of the DEA, apprehended all top seven leaders of Colombia's Cali drug cartel. One of those apprehended was Henry Loaiza, also known as "The Scorpion," a top Colombian paramilitary leader. He secretly collaborated with the CIA-backed intelligence networks to carry out assassinations against suspected leftists. A young, techno-minded CIA team led the Cali bust. Heading up the team was a woman. "I'm just a secretary," she protested when I called her on the phone at the time. But despite her denials, she was not unappreciated. On September 19, 1995, a courier delivered a white box to her at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota. I happened to be in the lobby at the time. She opened the box to find roses inside. They had been sent by the head of Colombia's National Police, General Rosso Jose Serrano. Most other agency counter-drug operations, however, have yielded few breakthroughs. The net result of CIA involvement in Colombia has not been to slow down the drug trade. Mainly, the agency has fueled a civil war that has taken an appalling toll on civilians. Colombia is not the only place where these two elements of the CIA nave clashed with each other. In Peru, the CIA coordinates all of its counter-drug efforts through the office of the powerful intelligence chief, Vladimiro Montesinos -- even though DEA special agents have produced no fewer than forty-nine different intelligence reports about Montesinos and his suspected narcotics smuggling. It is no wonder that agency counter-drug efforts in Peru have failed. In Guatemala, the agency has played a strong role in both counterinsurgency and counter-drug operations. As in Peru, the agency has worked with Guatemala's office of military intelligence, even though DEA special agents have formally accused a whopping thirty-one Guatemalan military officers of drug trafficking. Despite the CIA's efforts, not even one suspected officer has been tried. The Clinton Administration finally cut off CIA counterinsurgency aid to Guatemala in 1995 after revelations that an agency asset, Guatemalan Army Colonel Julio Roberto Alpirez, had been involved in the murder of Michael DeVine, a U.S. innkeeper, as well as in the murder of Efrain Bamaca Velasquez, a leftist guerrilla who was married to the Harvard-educated lawyer, Jennifer Harbury. But the Clinton Administration has allowed the CIA to continue providing counter-drug aid to Guatemala. Most of the major drug syndicates so far uncovered by the DEA have enjoyed direct links to Guatemalan military officers. One of the largest syndicates, exposed in 1996, "reached many parts of the military," according to the State Department. This year, the State Department reports, "Guatemala is the preferred location in Central America for storage and transshipment of South American cocaine destined for the United States via Mexico." Mexico is the next stop on the CIA counter-narcotics train. The fact that Mexico's former top counter-drug officer, General Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, was himself recently indicted for drug trafficking, raises the same old question: What is U.S. policy really all about? Before Gutierrez was busted, the DEA thought he was dirty, while U.S. officials, like General McCaffrey, still sporting Cold War lenses, thought he was clean and vouched for him shortly before his indictment. Some DEA special agents question the CIA's priorities in counter-drug programs. Human-rights groups remain suspicious of the same programs for different reasons. "There is no magic line dividing counter-narcotics and counter-insurgency operations," says Salinas of Amnesty International. "Given the current deterioration of human rights in Mexico," an expanded role in counter-drug operations by the United States "could lead to a green light for further violations." Testifying before Congress in March, the CIA Inspector General, Frederick R. Hitz, finally addressed allegations that the CIA once backed Cold War allies like the Nicaraguan contras even though they ran drugs. Hitz admitted that, at the very least, there have been "instances where CIA did not, in an expeditious or consistent fashion, cut off relationships with individuals supporting the contra program who were alleged to have engaged in drug trafficking activity, or take action to resolve the allegations." What CIA officials have yet to admit is that the agency is still doing the same thing today. Frank Smyth, a freelance journalist, has written a out the or drug trafficking in The Village Voice, The New Republic, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Jane's Intelligence Review. He has also contributed to "Crime in Uniform: Corruption and Impunity in Latin America," published jointly by the Cochabomba-based Accion Andina and the Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute. Copyright 1998 Progressive Inc. Source: Colombian Labor Monitor, clm@prairienet.org; http://www.prairienet.org/clm
------------------------------------------------------------------- Public Letter To Kofi Annan, Secretary General, United Nations (Text Of The Letter Calling For An End To The Global War On Drugs, Written On The Occasion Of The United Nations General Assembly Special Session On Drugs In New York June 8-10 - Including The 500 World Leaders Who Signed It) Date: Sat, 6 Jun 1998 18:12:20 EDT Errors-To: manager@drcnet.org Reply-To: rlake@mapinc.org Originator: drctalk@drcnet.org Sender: drctalk@drcnet.org From: Richard LakeTo: Multiple recipients of list Subject: Public Letter to Kofi Annan, Secretary General, United Nations Public Letter to Kofi Annan June 1, 1998 Mr. Kofi Annan Secretary General United Nations New York, New York United States Dear Secretary General, On the occasion of the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Drugs in New York on June 8-10, 1998, we seek your leadership in stimulating a frank and honest evaluation of global drug control efforts. We are all deeply concerned about the threat that drugs pose to our children, our fellow citizens and our societies. There is no choice but to work together, both within our countries and across borders, to reduce the harms associated with drugs. The United Nations has a legitimate and important role to play in this regard -- but only if it is willing to ask and address tough questions about the success or failure of its efforts. We believe that the global war on drugs is now causing more harm than drug abuse itself. Every decade the United Nations adopts new international conventions, focused largely on criminalization and punishment, that restrict the ability of individual nations to devise effective solutions to local drug problems. Every year governments enact more punitive and costly drug control measures. Every day politicians endorse harsher new drug war strategies. What is the result? U.N. agencies estimate the annual revenue generated by the illegal drug industry at $400 billion, or the equivalent of roughly eight per cent of total international trade. This industry has empowered organized criminals, corrupted governments at all levels, eroded internal security, stimulated violence, and distorted both economic markets and moral values. These are the consequences not of drug use per se, but of decades of failed and futile drug war policies. In many parts of the world, drug war politics impede public health efforts to stem the spread of HIV, hepatitis and other infectious diseases. Human rights are violated, environmental assaults perpetrated and prisons inundated with hundreds of thousands of drug law violators. Scarce resources better expended on health, education and economic development are squandered on ever more expensive interdiction efforts. Realistic proposals to reduce drug-related crime, disease and death are abandoned in favor of rhetorical proposals to create drug-free societies. Persisting in our current policies will only result in more drug abuse, more empowerment of drug markets and criminals, and more disease and suffering. Too often those who call for open debate, rigorous analysis of current policies, and serious consideration of alternatives are accused of "surrendering." But the true surrender is when fear and inertia combine to shut off debate, suppress critical analysis, and dismiss all alternatives to current policies. Mr. Secretary General, we appeal to you to initiate a truly open and honest dialogue regarding the future of global drug control policies - one in which fear, prejudice and punitive prohibitions yield to common sense, science, public health and human rights. Sincerely, ARGENTINA Graciela Fernandez Meijide Member of Congress Irma Fidela Parentella Member of Congress Gustavo Hurtado Coordinación Ejecutiva del Programa de Drogadependencia de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires Carlos Juan Moneta Permanent Secretary of the Latin American Economic System (SELA) Adolfo Perez Esquivel Nobel Laureate (Peace) Graciela TouzU President, Intercambios AUSTRALIA Dick Adams House of Representatives, National Parliament Lyn Allison Senator, National Parliament Peter Baume Former Cabinet Minister; Chancellor, Australian National University Kevin Berry Olympic Gold Medallist Ald. Pru Bonham Deputy Lord Mayor, Hobart Ted Bramble Lawyer, Civil Libertarian Peter Brooks Dean, Health Sciences, University of Queensland John Brumby Leader of the Opposition, Victoria Ita Buttrose Journalist, author John Cain Former Premier, Victoria Dr. Greg B. Chesher Pharmacologist Assoc. Prof. Macdonald J. Christie Department of Pharmacology, University of Sydney Peter Cleeland Former Politician Barney Cooney Senator from Victoria Dr. Nick Crofts Public researcher Paul Deany Executive Officer, Asian Harm Reduction Network Mary Delahunty Journalist Ivor Deverson Lord Mayor, Melbourne Bob Douglas Professor of Epidemiology, Australian National University Alex Dr. Wodak Physician Phillip Dunn QC Barrister Paul Ellercamp Journalist Peter Fritz Founder and Managing Director, TCG Group of Companies Dr. Peter Graham General Practitioner Randolph Griffiths Former Sydney City Councillor Sir Rubert Hamer Former Premier, Victoria Susan Irvine Senior Lecturer, Public Health Harry Jenkins House of Representatives, National Parliament Michael Kirby, AC CMG President, International Commission of Jurists Joan Kirner Former Premier, Victoria John Konrads Olympic Gold Medallist Professor Jara Krivanek Technical University of Ostrava Czech Republic Richard Larkins Chairman, National Health and Medical Research Council Steve Leeder Dean, Medical Faculty, Sydney University Helen Lochhead Architect Frank Merlino Mayor, City of Whittlesea David Penington Former Vice Chancellor, Melbourne University Ron Penny Professor of Immunology, University of New South Wales Bronwyn Pike Executive Officer, Evatt Centre Phil Puna Attorney Dr. Adrian Reynolds Robert Richter QC Barrister Leo Schofield Director, Sydney Festival Richard Smallwood Former President, Royal Australasian College of Physicians Dr. Nadia Solowij National Drug & Alcohol Research Centre, University of NSW John Spatchurst Principal, Spatchurst Design Associates Bill Stronach Australian Drug Foundation Kelvin Templeton Sportsman and Sports Administrator Charles Watson Dean Health Sciences Curtin University David White Former Politician Michael Willesee TV Broadcaster Charles Williams Dean of Law, Monash University Neville Wran Former Premier, New South Wales BELGIUM Yves Cartuyvels Professor of Penal Law, University of Saint-Louis, Brussels Stanley Crossick Chairman, European Policy Centre Vincent Decroly Member of Parliament, Brussels Christine Guillain Attorney, Researcher, School of the Criminological Sciences, Free University of Brussels Dan Kaminski School of Criminology, Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve Philippe Mary Professor of Criminology, Vice-President, School of Crimininological Sciences, Free University of Brussels Patrick Moriau University of Brussels Member of Parliament, Mayor of Chapelle-lez-Herlaimont Ilya Prigogyne Emeritus professor physical chemistry, Free University of Brussels; Nobel Laureate (Chemistry, 1977) Olivier Ralet Former head, PEDDRO drug prevention project, UNESCO/European Union Micheline Roelandt Psychiatrist Sonja Snacken Ph.D., Professor of Criminology and Sociology of Law, Free University of Brussels Isabelle Stengers Philosopher, Free University of Brussels; Winner "Grand Prix de Philosophie de L'Académie Française Lode Van Outrive Emeritus Professor of Criminology, Leuven University; Former Member of the European Parliament BOLIVIA Antonio Aranibar Quiroga Former Foreign Minister Edgar Camacho Omiste Former Ambassador to the OAS Roger Cortez-Hurtado Former Member of Congress Juan del Granado Member of Congress Alfonso Ferrufino Valderrama Former Vice-President of the Bolivian House of Representatives Horst Grebe Lopez Former Cabinet Minister Lidya Gueiler Tejada Former President of Bolivia Roberto Moscoso Valderrama Member of Congress Ricardo Paz Ballivian Former Member of Congress Carlos Julio Quiroga Blanco Member of Congress Guillermo Richter A. Former Senator Gonzalo Ruiz Member of Congress Manuel Suarez Avila Member of Congress Felix Vasquez Mamani Member of Congress BRAZIL Ana Magnólia Bezerrá Mendés Assistant Professor, University of Brasilia Pedro Casaldaliga Catholic Bishop of São Felix do Araquaia Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva Presidential Candidate, Brazil; Honorary President of the Workers Party Fabio Mesquita Researcher, University of São Paulo, Brasil; Executive Director of the Latin American Harm Reduction Network CANADA Glenn A. Gilmour Lawyer, Ottawa James A. Wakeford AIDS Activist, Toronto Frank Addario Criminal Lawyer Chris Axworthy Member of Parliament, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Marie-Andrée Bertrand Professor Emeritus of Criminology, University of Montreal; President, International Antiprohibitionist League, Montreal, Quebec Barry L. Beyerstein, Ph.D. Brain Behavior Laboratory, Simon Fraser University Barry L. Beyerstein, PhD Brain Behavior Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C. Neil Boyd Professor, School of Criminology, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver J.A. Browne Parent, Burlington, Ontario C. Michael Bryan Formerly Special Assistant, Commission of Inquiry into the Non-Mecial Use of Drugs (Le Dain Commission); Senior Policy Analyst (Narcotic Control Policy), Health Protection Branch, Health Canada Paul Burstein Criminal Lawyer Sharon Carstairs Senator, former Chair, Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, Sente of Canada John W. Conroy Barrister & Solicitor, Mission , B.C. Paul Copeland Lawyer; Columnist on Drug Law, Ontario Criminal Lawyers' Association Newsletter, Toronto Laura Cowan, RN Executive Director of Street Health, Toronto, Ontario Libby Davies Member of Parliament, Vancouver-East Jonathan Dawe Barrister, Toronto, Ontario Denise De Pape Bev Desjarlais Member of Parliament, Manitoba Marion Dewar HAIA Oxfam Canada, Ottawa Jari Dvorek Medical Marijuana Activist, Toronto Richard Elliott President, Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, Toronto Patricia G. Erickson, PhD Senior Scientist, Addiction Research Foundation, Division of the Addiction and Mental Health Services Corporation, Professor of Sociology, University of Toronto Michael Farrance Addictions Coordinator, City of Toronto Hostels Division, Toronto Yvon Godin Member of Parliament, Bathhurst, NB Irene Goldstone B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, Vancouver Dr. Richard Gould Community Medicine Specialist, Toronto Edward L. Greenspan, QC Senior Partner, Greenspan, Nenein & White, Toronto Catherine Hankins Public Health Epidemiologist, Chair of the Canadian Task Force on HIV and Injection Drug Use, Montreal David Harvey Oakville, Ontario Shaun Hopkins Manager, The Works Andrew J. Rapoch Former President, National Organization for the Reform of the Marijuana Laws (NORML), Ottawa, Ontario Jane Jacobs Author Ralf Jorgens Executive Director, Canadian HIV/AIDS, Legal Network, Montreal J. Robertt. Kellerman Law Union of Ontario, Steering Committee Perry Kendall Former president, Addiction Research Foundation, Victoria Rick Laliberte Member of Parliament, Churchill River, Beauval, Saskatchewan Pierre Landreville Professer of Criminology, University of Montreal Wendy Lill Member of Parliament, Dartmouth Dennis Long President, Ontario Federation of Community Addictions and Mental Health Programs; Executive Director, Breakaway Substance Abuse Treatment Centre, Toronto, Ontario Paul MacPhee Co-Chair AIDS Action Now!, Toronto, Ontario Peter Mancini Member or Parliament Ron Mann Filmmaker, Toronto Patrick Martin Member of Parliament, Winnipeg, Manitoba Vishnu Mathur T.V. Producer, Toronto Alexa McDonough Member of Parliament, Federal Leader of New Democratic Party, Ottawa, Canada Ruth Morris Education Director, Toronto Lorne Nystrom Member of Parliament, N.D.P., Qu'Appelle, Regina, Saskatchewan Eugene Oscapella Lawyer, former Chair, Law Reform Commission of Canada Drug Policy George Panagpa F.U.M Group - Parkdale Comunity Health Center John C. Polanyi Nobel Laureate (Chemistry, 1986), Toronto, Ontario Gil Puder Police Officer, Abbotsford, BC Diane Riley, PhD International Harm Reduction Association, Toronto Svend Robinson Member of Parliament, New Democratic Party of Canada, Burnaby-Douglas Greg Robinson Co-Chair AIDS Action Now!, Toronto Dr. David Roy Director, Centre for Bioethics, Clinical Research Institute of Montreal Clayton Ruby Lawyer, Toronto Gordon S. Earle Member of Parliament, Halifax, Nova Scotia Dr. John S. Millar Provincial Health Officer, Ministry of Health and Ministry Responsible for Seniors, Victoria, British Columbia Pat Sanagan Substance Abuse Prevention Consultant Jan Skirrow Consultant; Former CEO Alberta Alcohol & Drug Abuse Commission; Deputy Minister of Community and Occupational Health, Alberta; Founding CEO Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, Duncan, BC Robert St-Pierre HIV Program Coordinator, Canadian Hemophilia Society, Montreal Terence Stewart Canadian Aids Society, Ottawa Peter Stoffer Member of Parliament - New Democratic Party of Canada Neev Tapiero Medical Cannabis Activist and Dispenser, Toronto Jeannette Tossounian MUM (Marijuana Used for Medicine), Kitchener, Ontario Elaine Vautour Counsellor, Toronto, Ontario Judy Wasylycia-Leis Member of Parliament, Winnipeg Dr. Jonathan Wouk Ottawa, Ontario CHILE Ariel Dorfman Writer CHINA Spencer So Community Drug Advisory Council COLOMBIA Arturo Alape Writer Gustavo Alvarez Gardeazabal Governor, Department of Valle de Cauca Belisario Betancur Former President Juan Manuel Santos President, Fundacion Buen Gobierno Alvaro Mutis Writer Augusto Ramirez Ocampo Former Foreign Minister; National Recociliation Commission COSTA RICA Oscar Arias Nobel Laureate (Peace); Former President of Costa Rica DENMARK Hans Henrik Brydensholt High Court Judge, Former Director of the Danish Prison and Probation Service, Former Head of Section in the Danish Ministry of Justice Bjørn Elmquist Former Member of Parliament and Chairman of Parliamentary Permanent Committee on Justice Jørgen Jepsen Centre of Alcohol & Drug Research, University of Aarhus Erik Merlung District Attorney, Copenhagen Erling Olsen Former Minister of Justice, Former Chairman of the Danish Parliament, Former Professor of Economics at the University of Copenhagen Villy Søvndal Member of Parliament, Chairman of the Permanent Parliamentary Committee on Social Affairs ECUADOR Washington Herrera Former Presidential Minister FINLAND Inkeri Anttila Professor of Penal Law, University of Helsinki; Former Minister of Justice Kauko Aromaa Research Director, National Research Institute of Legal Policy Pekka Koskinen Professor of Penal Law, University of Helsinki Klaus Maekelae Research Director, Finnish Foundation for Alcohol Studies Hannu Takala Executive Secretary, National Council for Crime Prevention Patrik Tornudd Former Director of National Research Institute of Legal Policy FRANCE Claude Aiguevive, MD Vice President, Médecins du Monde Josefina Alvarez Research Group on Criminal Policy, University of Montpellier I Bruno Aubusson de Cavarlay Research Engineer, Guyancourt Dr. Elisbeth Avril Médecins du Monde Michèle Barzach Former Minister of Health Georges Berthoin International Honarary Chairman of the European Movement, Paris France Mario Bettati Professor of International Law, Paris University Francis Caballero Professor of Law, Paris University Jean-Pierre Changeux Professor of Molecular Neurobiology, Pasteur Institute and College de France Anne Coppel Sociologist Claude Faugeron Research Director, Co-Director, CNRS Drug Research Group, Paris Andre Glucksman Philosopher Marek Halter Writer Michel Kazatchkine Professor of Immunology, Paris University Catherine Lalumiere MPE (Member of the European Parliament) Jacques Lebas, MD President, Institut de l'Humanitaire, Paris Bertrand Lebeau Head Centre Parmentier Paris Thierry Levy Attorney William Lowenstein, MD Head, Montecristo Center, Paris Jacky Mamou President, Médecins de Monde Arnaud Marty Lavauzelle President, AIDES Monique Nahas Professor, University of Paris VIII GERMANY Lorenz Böllinger Professor of Law, University of Bremen Daniel Cohn-Bendit Member, European Parliament; Commission for Civil Rights and Internal Affairs Barbara Duden Professor of Historical Sociology, Hannover, Germany Peter Frerichs Vice President, Frankfurt Police Prof. Dr. Monika Frommel Criminal Law, School of Criminology, University of Kiel Günter Grass Writer Prof. Dr. Axel Grönemeyer Center for Social Problems, Public Health and Social Policy, University of Bielefeld Johannes Gross Journalist, Author, Talk show host, former editor "Capital" Prof. Dr. Bernhard Haffke Criminal Law, University of Passau Ivan Illich Philosopher Dr. Hans Harald Koerner Public Prosecutor, Frankfurt Leutheuser-Schnarrenberger Former German Federal Minister of Justice, drug political speaker, FDP Party Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger Former German Federal Minister of Justice Heide Moser Minister of Employment and Social Affairs, State of Schleswig-Holstein Prof. Dr. Cornelius Nestler University of Köln Margarethe Nimsch Former Minister for Health, State of Hessen, Germany Prof. Dr. Cornelius Prittwitz Criminal Law, University of Rostock Prof. Dr. Stephan Quensel Professor of Sociology, University of Bremen Prof. Dr. Sebastian Scheerer Aufbau- und Kontaktstudium Kriminologie, University of Hamburg Prof. Dr. Konrad Schily President, University of Witten-Herdecke Hartmut Schneider District Court Judge, Lübeck Dierk-Henning Schnitzler Police President, City of Bonn, Christian Democrate GREECE Alexis Grivas Foreign Correspondent El Sol de Mexico Daily Nicos Mouzelis Professor of Sociology, London School of Economics, Athens Nocis Papadakis Press Counsellor, Greek Embassy in London George Papandreou Alternate Foreign Minister of Greece Michaelis Papayannakis Member European Parliament Anthony D. Papayannides Journalist, Publisher James Pettifer Visiting Professor, Institute of Balkan Studies, University of Thessaloniki Voula Tsinorema Professor of Philosophy, University of Ioannina Georgos Votsis Political Editor, Eleftherotypia Newpaper, Athens GUATEMALA Arnaldo Ortiz Moscoso Former President of the Bar Association, Guatemala HUNGARY Jánes Kis Philosopher INDIA Jimmy Dorabjee Program Manager, Society for Serving the Urban Poor, New Delhi IRELAND Ivana Bacik Reid Professor of Criminal Law, Trinity College, Dublin Vincent Browne Journalist; Lawyer Tim Murphy Lecturer in Law, University College, Cork Daire O'Brien Editor, Himself Magazine Olaf Paul Tyaransen Writer ISREAL Yossi Beilin Former Minister, Member of Knesset, Tel Aviv Haim Cohn Former Deputy President of the Israel Supreme Court, Professor of Penal Philosophy Prof. Ruth Gavison Haim Cohn Professor of Human Rights, Hebrew University; President of the Israel Civil Rights Association; Member, International Commission of Jurists Menachem Horovitz Former Director of Correctional Services, Department of Welfare and Labour; Research and Teaching Associate, Institute of Criminology, Hebrew University Leslie Sebba, JD Associate Professor, Law Faculty, Hebrew University; former Chairperson of the Criminology Council. ITALY Vittorio Agnoletto President of the Italian League Against AIDS Monica Bettoni-Brandani Undersecretary of State for Health Giovanni Bollea Professor of Neuropsychiatry, University of Rome Emma Bonino European Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs Nicoletta Braschi Actress Francesco Carella President Health Commission of the Senate Don Luigi Ciotti President, Gruppo Abele, Torino Dario Fo Nobel Laureate (Literature 1997) Luigi Manconi Senator, President of the Green Party, Rome Livio Pepino President, Magistratura Democratica Giuliano Pisapia President, Justice Commission, Italian Parliament, Rome Franca Rame Actress Stefano Rodota President, Authority for Privacy Ersilia Salvato Vice-President, Senate, Rome Grazia Zuffa President, Forum Droghe; Former Member of Parliament, Florence JAMAICA Colonel (R) Trevor N.N. MacMillan, C.D.J.P. Former Commissioner of Police, Jamaica Constabulary Force; Former Director, Revenue Protection Division, Ministry of Finance LUXEMBOURG Renée Wagner Member of Parliament, Luxemburg; President of the Green Party; Member, Special Parliamentary Commssion on Drugs MALAYSIA Susan Chong Malaysian AIDS Council Hisham Hussein Malaysian AIDS Council G. Chacko Vadaketh Chair, Law and Ethics Committee, Malaysian AIDS Council; Advocate and Solicitor, Kuala Lumpur MEXICO Mariclare Acosta President of the Mexican Comission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights (CMDPDH) Homero Aridjis President, International Organization of Literary Writers & Editors Carlos Heredia Zubieta Member of Congress Gilberto Lopez y Rivas Member of Congress Jesus Silva Herzog Former Mexican Ambassador to the United States NETHERLANDS Andreas van Agt Former Prime Minister of the Netherlands; Former Minister of Justice; Former Ambassador of the European Union to the United States Janhuib Blans Head of Jellinek Prevention; Assistant Professor of Parent Education and Prevention, University of Amsterdam Tim Boekhout van Solinge Centre for Drug Research, University of Amsterdam Frank Bovenkerk Professor of criminology, University of Utrecht Giel van Brussel MPH Master Public Health, Amsterdam Dr. Peter D.A. Cohen Centre for Drug Research, University of Amsterdam Hedy d'Ancona Former Dutch Minister of Welfare, Health, and Culture; Member of the European Parliament Marcel van Dam Publicist, Former Minister of Housing and Physical Planning, Putten, Netherlands Dr. Peter A. de Groot Psychiatrist, Harderwijk Jan F. Glastra van Loon Professor, Senator, Former State Secretary of Justice John Griffiths Professor of Sociology of Law, University of Groningen Sylvia van 't Hul Public Prosecutor, Rotterdam Louk Hulsman Emeritus professor of Penal Law and Criminology, Erasmus University, Rotterdam; Former President, European Commission for Criminal Problems, Coucil of Europe Constantijn Kelk, Ph.D. Professor, Director, Willem Pompe Institute for Criminal Sciences, Utrecht University Free le Poole Member of the First Chamber of Parliament (Senate), Vice-President, District Court, Assen Ed Leuw Researcher at the Ministry of Justice, The Hague Freek Polak Psychiatrist, Amsterdam Felix Rottenberg Amsterdam Frits C.F. Rüter Professor of Criminal Law, University of Amsterdam E.H. Schuyer Senator; Chairman of Democrats (D66), Senate Jan G. van der Tas Former Netherlands Ambassador to Germany Ed. van Thijn Former Mayor of Amsterdam; Professor, University of Amsterdam J.M. vander Vaart Judge, District Court of Amsterdam Leon Wever Board Member, Symbion (Addiction Care Rotterdam Region, Rijnmond); Former Deputy Chief of Addiction Care, Ministry of Health Dr. Pieter Winsemius Former Netherlands Minister of Housing, Physical Planning and Environment Policy NEW ZEALAND Tim Barnett Member of Parliament, New Zealand NICARAGUA Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Former President of Nicaragua Miguel d'Escoto Brockman Former Foreign Minister; Fundeci Nicaraguan Foundation for Comprehensive Community Development Xabier Gorostiaga Former Rector, University of Central America NORWAY Johannes Andenaes Professor of Penal Law; Former Rector, University of Oslo; Former Chairman, Permanent Penal Committee of Norway Anders Bratholm Professor of Penal Law, University of Oslo Nils Christie Professor of Criminology, University of Oslo, Former director of Scandinavian Board of Criminology Gunnar Garbo Ambassador; Former Member of Parliament Ragnar Hauge Professor, Former Director, State Institute of Alcohol and Drug Research Cecilie Hoigaard Professor of Criminology, University of Oslo, Former Director, Scandinavian Board of Criminology Thomas Mathiesen Professor of Sociology of Law, University of Oslo Sturla Nordlund Director, Norwegian State Institute of Alcohol and Drug Research PERU Javier Alva Orlandini Member of Congress Rolando Ames Former Senator Humberto Campodonico Economist, University Professor (San Marcos) Arturo Castillo Chirinos Member of Congress Julio Cotler Director, Institute of Peruvian Studies Javier Diez Canseco Member of Congress Fernando Eguren Sociologist, Director of Quarterly Debate Agrario Antero Flores Araoz Member of Congress Lourdes Flores Nano Member of Congress Ernesto Gamarra Olivares Member of Congress Diego Garcia-Sayan Executive Director, Andean Commission of Jurists Alfonso Grados Bertorini Member of Congress, Peru Gustavo Gutierrez Theologian Jutta Krause German Technical Development Agency Manuel Lajo Member of Congress Guido Lombardi Anchor, Red Global TV Javier Perez de Cuellar Former Secretary General of the United Nations Federico Salazar Anchor, America TV Alejandro Santa Maria Member of Congress Annel Townsend Diez Canseco Member of Congress Jose Ugaz University Professor Allan Wagner Former Minister of Foreign Affairs POLAND Marek Balicki Psychiatrist, Former Deputy, Ministry of Health Mikolaj Kozakiewicz Former Speaker of Parliament (1989-1991); Vice-President of IPPFV Krzysztof Krajewski Professor, School of Criminology, University of Jagiellonski Marek Nowicki President, Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights; Member, Helsinki Commitee for Human Rights Danuta Przywara Secretary to the Board, Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights Andrzej Rzeplinski Professor of Criminology, University of Warsaw; Deputy President, Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights Janusz Sieroslawski Sociologist, Pompidou Group PORTUGAL Daniel Sampaio, MD, Ph.D. Professor of Psychiatry, University of Lisbon SOUTH AFRICA Malcolm Damon Public Policy Liason Officer, South African Council of Churches Neville Gabriel, C.S.S.R. SACBC Parliamentary Office Helen Suzman Former Opposition Member of Parliament, Johannesburg SPAIN Jose Antonio Alonso Suarez Judge. Juzgado de lo Penal n° 14 de Madrid Gregorio Alvarez Alvarez Judge. Juzgado de 1ª instancia e instrucción n° 2 de Salamanca Francisco Javier Alvarez Garcia Law Professor, Universidad de Cantabria Perfecto Andrés Ibañez Judge; Presidente de la Secc. 15. Audiencia provincial de Madrid Heriberto Asencio Castillan Judge. Audiencia provincial de Sevilla Adela Asua Batarrita Law Professor, Universidad de San Sebastiÿn Ignacio Berdugo Goméz De La Torre Dean and Law Professor, Universidad de Salamanca Emilio Berlanga Ribelles Judge. Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Cataluña Ricardo Bodas Martin Judge. Juzgado de lo Social n° 30 de Madrid Javier Boix Reig Law Professor - Universidad de Valencia Antonio Caballero Writer and journalist Francisco Candil Jimenez Law Professor, Universidad de Sevilla Rocio Cantarero Bandres Law Professor, Universidad de la Rioja Juan Carlos Carbonell Mateu Dean and Law Professor, Universidad de Valencia Manuela Carmena Castrillo Judge. Vocal del Consejo General del Poder judicial Miguel Carmona Ruano Judge, Presidente de la Audiencia provincial de Sevilla Jose Cid Moline Law Professor, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona Candido Conde Pumpido Judge. Sala 2ª del Tribunal Supremo Antonio Contardo Industrialist Antonio Cuerda Riezu Law Professor, Universidad de LeónLetrado del Tribunal Constitucional Jose Luis De La Cuesta Arzamendi Vice Dean and Law Professor Universidad del País Vasco Juan Tomas De Salas Lawyer and Journalist- Founder of the Grupo16, Publisher and Editor of HisToria16, Editor of El Gato Encerrrado Jose Luis Díez Ripollés Law Professor, Universidad de MÿlagaCoordinador del Grupo de Estudios de Política Criminal Aurora Elosegui Sotos Judge.Juzgado de 1ª Instancia n° 6 de San Sebastiÿn Antonio Escohotado Writer Professor of the Universidad a Distancia, Author of the best seller "Historia de las Drogas" Jesus Fernandez Entralgo Judge. Secc. 17. Audiencia provincial de Madrid Maria Dolores Fernandez Rodriguez Law Professor, Universidad de Murcia Juan Carlos Ferre Olivé Law Professor, Universidad de Huelva Rafael Fluiters Casado Judge. Juzgado de 1ª instancia e instrucción n° 1 de Alcalÿ de Henares. 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Sala de lo Contencioso del Tribunal Supremo Francisco Muñoz Conde Law Professor, Universidad de Sevilla Enrique Orts Berenguer Law Professor, Universidad de Valencia Felix Pantoja Judge, Fiscal de Menores de Madrid Jose Miguel De Paul Velasco Judge. Audiencia Provincial de Sevilla Jose Joaquin Perez-Beneyto Abad Judge.Juzgado de lo Social n° 4 de Sevilla Mario Pestana Perez Judge. Juzgado de 1ª Ins. e Instrucción n° 1 de Leganés. Madrid.Coordinador del Grupo de Estudios de Política Criminal Miguel Polaino Navarrete Law Professor, Universidad de Sevilla Luis Rodriguez Ramos Catedrático de Derecho Penal de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid Horacio Roldÿn Barbero Law Professor, Universidad de Córdoba Juan Jose Romeo Laguna Judge. Audiencia provincial, Sección VIII de Sevilla Bernardo Del Rosal Blasco Law Professor, Universidad de Alicante Ramon Saez Valcarcel Judge. Vocal del Consejo General del Poder judicial Fernando Savater Writer / Philosopher Jose R. Serrano-Piedecasas Law Professor, Universidad de Salamanca Ascension Sole Puig Judge.Juzgado de lo Social n° 28 de Barcelona Josep Maria Tamarit Sumalla Law Professor, Universidad de Lérida Juan Terradillos Basoco Law Professor, Universidad de Cÿdiz Jose Manuel Valle Muñiz Law Professor, Universidad de Lérida Ramiro Ventura Faci Judge.Juzgado de Instrucción n° 18 de Madrid Luis Yañez-Barnuevo Member of Parliament Jose Miguel Zugaldia Espinar Dean, and Law Professor, Universidad de Granada SWEDEN Anders Bergmark Professor of social work, Stockholm University Peter Curman Former Chairman, Swedish Writer's Union Ted Goldberg Associate Professor of social work, Stockholm University Olof Lagercrantz Former Editor-In-Chief, Dagens Nyheter Leif Lenke Associate Professor of criminology, Stockholm University Claes Örtendahl Former Director General, Board of Health and Welfare, Sweden Ingegmar Rexed Judge,Svea Court of Appeal, Stockholm Jerzy Sarnecki Professor of criminology, Stockholm University Sune Sunesson Professor of social work, Lund University Henrik Tham Professor of criminology, Stockholm University Per Ole Träskman Professor of penal law, Lund University, Sweden Hanns von Hofer Professor of criminology, Stockholm University SWITZERLAND Peter Albrecht Judge, Court of Bâle-Ville; Professor, University of Bâle Pascal Bernheim Second Manager, Radio Suisse Romande - La Première Dr. Barbara Broers Division of Substance Abuse, Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital of Geneva Christian Brunier Member of Parliament, Geneva; President, Geneva Socialist Party Pierre Philippe Cadert Journalist, Radio Suisse Romande Maria Luisa Cesoni Attorney, Research Fellow, Faculty of Law, University of Geneva Jacqueline Cogne Member of Parliament, Geneva Herve Dessimoz Congressman, Geneva Parliament Dr Dominique Hausser, MD, MSc Member of Parliament, Geneva; Co-president, Drug Policy Commission, Socialist Party Bohdan D. Hawrylyshyn Chairman, International Renaissance Foundation Michel Heiniger Film Director; Reporter, Swiss TV - Geneva Dr. Annie Mino MD Head, Division of Substance, Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital, Geneva Christian Nils Robert Professor, School of Law, Geneva; CPT Expert (Council of Europe) Albert Rodrik Member of Parliament, Geneva Francoise Schenk-Gottret Member of Parliament, Geneva UNITED STATES Morton Abramowitz International Crisis Group Bruce Ackerman Sterling Professor of Law, Yale University Tammy Baldwin Wisconsin State Representative, Candidate for Congress Randy E. Barnett Austin B.Fletcher Professor, Boston University School of Law Jeremiah A Barondess MD President, New York Academy of Medicine Jim Baumohl Bryn Mawr College David H. Bayley Dean, School of Criminal Justice State University of New York at Albany Peter Beilenson Baltimore City Health Commissioner Ivan T. Berend Professor, University of California, Los Angeles Robert L. 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Fitch Professor Emeritus of Physics, Princeton University Rev. Floyd Flake Cathedral of the Allen AME Church, Pastor Kathleen M. Foley Project on Death in America Milton Friedman Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Insitution, Stanford University Douglas Gale Professor of Economics, New York University H. Jack Geiger, MD Professor of Community Medicine, City University of New York Medical School Adrienne Germain President, International Women's Health Coalition Alfred G. Gilman, MD, PhD Regental Professor and Chairman, Department of Pharmacology, University of Texas Ira Glasser Executive Director, The American Civil Liberties Union Ellen Goldberg President, Santa Fe Institute Marvin L. 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Hoffer, PhD Dean Emeritus, Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh Sher Horosko Executive Director, Drug Policy Foundation Douglas Husak Professor of Philosophy, Rutgers University Alex Inkeles Sociologist, Senior Fellow Emeritus Hoover Institution, Stanford University Sut Jhally Professor of Communication, University of Massachusetts - Amherst Carole Joffe Professor of Sociology at University of California Howard Josepher, CSW Executive Director, Exponents Inc. John Kane Federal Judge, Denver, CO Nicholas Katzenbach Former Attorney General Donald Kennedy President Emeritus Stanford University; Professor Bological Services, Stanford Rufus King, Sr. Daniel Klein Department of Economics, Santa Clara University Whitman Knapp Senior District Judge, Southern District of New York Jeanne E. 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Alan Robison Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology, University of Texas, Houston Laurance Rockefeller Ruth Rosen Professor of History at the U. of California, Davis Marsha Rosenbaum Director The Lindesmith Center, San Francisco office Allan Rosenfield Dean, Columbia School of Public Health Vernon W. Ruttan Regents Professor, University of Minnesota Oscar Schachter Professor Emeritus of International Law and Diplomacy, Columbia University Kurt Schmoke Mayor of Baltimore Sidney H. Schnoll, M.D., Ph.D. Division of Substance Abuse Medicine, Medical College of Virginia Carl E. Schorske Professor of History, Princeton University Herman Schwartz Professor of Law, American University George Shultz Former Secretary of State, Dinstinguished Fellow, Hoover Institution Henry Siegman Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations, New York Richard E. Smalley Nobel Laureate (Chemistry, 1996) George Soros Chairman, Soros Fund Management LCC; Chairman, Open Society Institute John Sperling Chairman and CEO, Apollo Group, Inc. Eric Sterling President, Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, Washington, D.C. Robert S. Strauss Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld Eve Sullivan Founder, Parents' Forum Leon H. Sullivan Chairman, OIC of America Robert Sweet Federal Judge, New York, NY Hon. James W. Symington Attorney at Law David J. Theroux Founder/President, The Independent Institute Brooks Thomas Former Chairman and CEO Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc. John S. Toll Chancellor Emeritus, University of Maryland System; President, Washington College; Former President, Washington Academy of Sciences; Former President, Universities Research Association Arnold S. Trebach, J.D. , Ph.D. Professor Emeritus, American University; Founder, The Drug Policy Foundation Donald Trunkey MD, Chairman and Professor, Department of Surgery, Oregon Health Sciences University Richard Ullman Professor , Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton Universtiy J. Thomas Ungerleider, MD Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center; Presidential Appointee (Nixon), National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse Dr. Mark Vierra Assistant Professor of Surgery, Stanford University James Vorenberg Professor, Harvard Law School Faye Wattleton Former Executive Director, Planned Parenthood Andrew Weil Clinical Professor of Internal Medicine, University of Arizona College of Medicine; Author of "Spontaneous Healing" and "Natural Health, Natural Healing" Andrew Weiss Professor of Economics, Boston University Jann S. Wenner Chairman, Wenner Media, Inc. Cornel West Professor, Harvard University Sidney M. Wolfe, MD Public Citizen's Health Research Group Gavin Wright Professor of Economics, Stanford University Kevin B. Zeese President, Common Sense for Drug Policy George Zimmer Chairman/CEO, Men's Wearhouse Lynn Zimmer Associate Professor of Sociology, Queens College, City University of New York Franklin Zimring Professor of Law, UC Berkeley Jeffrey Zwiebel Associate Professor of Finance, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University UNITED KINGDOM Lord Rae House of Lords Austin N.E. Amissah Judge, London Rabbi Tony Bayfield Director, Sternberg Centre for Judaism Colin Blakemore Professor; Fellow of the Royal Society; President, British Association for the Advancement of Science Colin Brewer Medical Director, the Stapleford Centre Rabbi Sidney Brichto Senior Vice President of the Union of Liberal and Progressive Synagogues Peter P. Burnett Bodleian Library Alison Downie Chair of Release, Solicitor Edward Ellison Retired Detective Chief Superintendent Metropolitan Police, Operational Head of Scotland Yard Drug Squad Stephen Fineman Professor, University of Bath Paul Flynn Member of Parliament, House of Commons Mike Goodman Director Release Dr. Brian Iddon Member of Parliament, London Mike Jay Chairman, Drug Policy Review Group Nicholas Kurti Fellow of the Royal Society Danny Kushlick Director, Transform Reverend Dr. Kenneth Leech Founder of Soho Drugs Group, Founder of Centrepoint Robin Marris Professor Emeritus, London University Judi Marshall Professor, Bath University Austin Mitchell Member of Parliament, UK Edith Morgan Mental Health Consultant, Order of the British Empire Dr. Richard Newman Professor of History, University of Wales Swansea John Purcell Professor, School of Human Resource Management, University of Bath Lord Rae, MD House of Lords Anita Roddick, OBE Founder, The Body Shop Martin Short Author Nigel South Professor of Sociology, University of Essex Ian Sparks Chief Executive, The Children's Society Eleanor Stephens Senior Lecturer, Media Journalism, University of Sheffield Richard Stevenson Professor of Health Economy, Liverpool University Anthony Tibber Judge, London Carole Tongue Member of European Parliament Right Reverend Rowan Williams Bishop of Monmouth URUGUAY Mario Benedetti Writer VENEZUELA Simon Alberto Consalvi Former Minister of Foreign Affairs Diego Arria Ambassador; Former Representative of Venezuela to the United Nations and Security Council *** Posted from this web document: http://www.lindesmith.org/news/un.html by: Richard Lake Senior Editor; MAPnews, MAPnews-Digest and DrugNews-Digest *** The Media Awareness Project is proud to participate in the Global Coalition for Alternatives to the Drug War. The 1998 Global Days against the Drug War! - June 6, 7, 8 - Join the Coalition! Events in over 50 cities! http://www.drugsense.org/ungass.htm
------------------------------------------------------------------- Mexico's Police Seize 1.3 Tons Of Cocaine ('The Orange County Register' Says Prohibition Agents In Tamaulipas State, Which Borders Texas, Also Seized A Total Of More Than Seven Tons Of Marijuana In Recent Weeks - The Largest Cocaine Bust Netted 1,128 Pounds) From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) To: "MN" (mapnews@mapinc.org) Subject: MN: Mexico: Mexico's Police Seize 1.3 Tons Of Cocaine Date: Mon, 1 Jun 1998 23:13:47 -0500 Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Newshawk: John W.Black Pubdate:6-1-98 Source: Orange County Register (CA) Contact: letters@link.freedom.com Website: http://www.ocregister.com/ MEXICO'S POLICE SEIZE 1.3 TONS OF COCAINE Police in Mexico's Tamaulipas state have seized 1.3 tons of cocaine and more than 7 tons of marijuana in recent weeks, state news agency Notimex reported Sunday. Notimex said police in the northern state of Tamaulipas, which borders the U.S. state of Texas, had snatched 1,128 pounds of cocaine in a single shipment at Matamoros, adjacent to Brownsville. "Tamaulipas has been used by gangs of narcotics traffickers as a drug route to the United States," Notimex reported. In recent years, Mexico has become a conduit for cocaine shipped by Colombian drug cartels on its way to the lucrative U.S. market. Mexico is also a producer of marijuana. Rival drug gangs have been battling in Mexican cities on the U.S. border, which in recent months have been the scene of frequent shootouts that often kill innocent bystanders.
------------------------------------------------------------------- The US At Odds With Itself On Mexico ('The Washington Post' Says The Recent Massive Money-Laundering Sting Against Mexican Bank Officials, 'Operation Casablanca,' Surprised And Upset Various US Government Officials At The Highest Levels Dealing With Mexico On Other Issues - Coordination Has Never Been A Strong Point Of US Foreign Policy, But In The Case Of Mexico, We Have Reached The Point Where Semi-Autonomous Law Enforcement Agencies Such As US Customs And The Drug Enforcement Administration Are In The Pilot's Seat) Date: Wed, 03 Jun 1998 02:13:34 -0400 To: mapnews@mapinc.org From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) Subject: MN: US: The U.S. at Odds with itself on Mexico Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Newshawk: kevzeese@laser.net (kevin b. zeese) Pubdate: Mon, 01 Jun 1998 Source: Washington Post Section: A17 Contact: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ Author: M. Delal Baer THE U.S. AT ODDS WITH ITSELF ON MEXICO Mexican government officials weren't the only ones caught by surprise by the recent announcement of a massive sting operation ("Casablanca") against Mexican bank officials for money laundering. Most of the American government, at the highest levels, also was in the dark about the operation. Janet Reno, Madeleine Albright, drug policy coordinator Barry McCaffrey and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin rushed to make apologies and clarifications to the Mexicans. Coordination has never been a strong point of U.S. foreign policy, but in the case of Mexico, we have reached the point at which semi-autonomous law enforcement agencies such as U.S. Customs and the Drug Enforcement Agency are in the pilot's seat. Frustrated by slow progress, DEA agents and the agency's administrator, Thomas Constantine, point the finger at Mexican corruption during the annual drug certification season, in an effort to incite Congress to decertify Mexico. Sensitive to Mexico's historical fear of American intervention and anxious to keep the complex bilateral agenda between Mexico and the United States moving forward, the State Department fears that drugs have become the tail that wags the dog. To the cops, overly solicitous U.S. officials sound like cheerleaders for the Mexicans. The lesson of Casablanca is that when American foreign policy toward Mexico is dictated by law enforcement, the consequences cascade throughout the whole bilateral relationship in a dangerously accidental way. For example, the Casablanca announcement occurred at a delicate moment in President Ernesto Zedillo's negotiations with the Mexican Congress over several key pieces of financial legislation, including the bank rescue, opening the banking sector to more foreign investment, legislating the autonomy of the central bank and strengthening the Mexican bank regulatory agency. Was it the intention of the Treasury Department to throw a monkey wrench into those negotiations? Moreover, the operation resulted in opposition party calls for the resignation or impeachment of, among others, Mexican Attorney General Jorge Madrazo and central bank governor Guillermo Ortiz. Was it the intention of U.S. policy to precipitate calls for the resignation of senior Mexican government officers? The market capitalization of Mexican banks plunged by more than $800 million after Reno's press conference panicked investors by suggesting that the U.S. government lacked confidence in the Mexican financial system. Did the U.S. Federal Reserve bail out Mexico and its financial system after the 1995 devaluation so that Customs could undermine it once again? I think not. Conspiratorially minded Mexicans can be forgiven if they try to read devious intentions into the destructive chaos of American foreign policy. It may not be the job of U.S. law enforcement officials to give a damn about the political or economic fallout of their unilateral operations, but it is the job of their superiors to ensure that operations are conducted with at least minimal respect for signed agreements and rules of bilateral cooperation. I would like to meet the U.S. senator who graciously would accept the undercover police of a foreign nation operating on American soil without permission. It is worrisome that some of the more frustrated elements of the U.S. law enforcement community seem to be courting a crisis in bilateral antidrug cooperation. Rumors are afoot that the DEA is prepared to withdraw all agents over issues such as their right to bear arms in Mexico and be accorded diplomatic immunity. Thus the scene is set for another confrontation in the 1999 certification, in which the DEA likely is to manipulate the terms of the congressional debate and the diplomats will scramble to prevent the United States from blundering toward the Armageddon of a possible Senate decertification. What a victory for Janet Reno and Customs. They have proven that if U.S. undercover agents wave $30 million at the bank branch managers of a poor country, they can succeed in corrupting them as easily as do the drug traffickers. For this brilliant revelation we put U.S.-Mexican relations at risk? The writer is director of the Mexico Project of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
------------------------------------------------------------------- Readers Take Issue With My High School Bust Column (Andrew Dreschel Of The 'Hamilton Spectator' In Ontario Ponders Again The Undercover Drug Sting By Halton Police At Oakville's General Wolfe High School) Date: Tue, 02 Jun 1998 08:35:14 -0400 To: DrugSense News ServiceFrom: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) Subject: MN: Canada: Column: Readers Take Issue With My High School Bust Column Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Newshawk: conlonkt@mcmail.CIS.McMaster.CA (Kelly T. Conlon) Source: Hamilton Spectator (Canada) Contact: letters@spectator.southam.ca Website: http://www.southam.com/hamiltonspectator/ Pubdate: 1 June 1998 Author: Andrew Dreschel Note: Our newshawk writes: "Andrew Dreschel is taking a lot of heat for questioning the wisdom of sending undercover officers into schools." READERS TAKE ISSUE WITH MY HIGH SCHOOL BUST COLUMN Reader response came fast and furious to last Friday's critical column of a drug sting at Oakville's General Wolfe High School. My point was that the two month investigation, which cost about $6000 but netted only $1000 in soft drugs was both a misguided use of resources and ethically questionable. Police and Halton District School officials, who sanctioned dropping the undercover cop into the school, obviously feel otherwise, and so did most of the readers who took the time to pick up the phone to either express their views or take a run at mine. Police laid drug trafficking charges against 14 teenagers as a result of the covert operation. Eleven are charged under the Young Offenders Act, the three others are 18 year olds. Some of the alleged dealers are from General Wolfe, some are from other schools, and some are no longer students. One of the calls that lit up my office voice mail came from the father of one of the accused. "My son was one of the kids arrested and charged with trafficking," he began. "It has done him a lot of good. He guarantees me he'll never be involved in drugs again. So if the big cost is such a concern to you, it has saved my son. I don't care what the price is." Another caller said he usually likes my stuff, but not this time. "Teenagers have to know what the law is, and they are not supposed to sell drugs at school. I think you have to start young when you start with discipline. You don't do it when you are your age. Sir, I think you are whacky. Goodbye and thank you." Caller John Reid said he's diametrically opposed to my position and will remain so as long as narcotics are illegal. He acknowledges that the war against drugs is a losing battle, but he has no qualms about using undercover cops in schools. "I don't understand why one side has to play by the rules and the others don't," he said. One anonymous caller shares the Halton police view that it's wrong to measure the success of an undercover investigation by comparing the expenses to the results. "It's an absolute absurdity that you would suggest that there is some financial equivalent as to the cost of this thing versus how much drugs they obtained in a bust. I just don't know where you're coming from on this one." Another reader who said he smoked pot in high school and college and admits he still does said he was glad to see the sting operation questioned. He said it was frivolous and not likely to deter anyone from using illicit drugs. He was in the minority, though. So was the uncivil call from the anonymous cop who sounded as if he was high on caffeine. Here it is in its entirety: "Yeah, I'm glad I got the machine because I won't be interrupted this way. I was reading your article about the Halton bust. Where did you get the idea that there's a success rate when you go into something like this? "Obviously, people like yourself who have no comprehension of what the police do and have never been in this type of situation before are going to criticize it. "Anytime an undercover officer gets in, makes a buy, and gets out without getting killed, it's a success. So that's how it has to be measured, not the quantity, not the value. "Unfortunately, ball-less idiots like you who sit behind a desk risking paper cuts everyday have no comprehension what the police do, OK? It's bad enough that we get criticized for everything else we do. If you're talking about youths' rights, no one has fewer than a cop because we're under scrutiny from everybody. "Most of the kids today are great kids, but the ones that are screwing things up have to be dealt with. If you can't understand that then you're thicker than you sound in the paper. Have a good day, and I hope you're never a victim of youth crime." Thanks for the thought, but it's too late. Now let me clarify something for you. I'm not defending the kids who are selling drugs in school. I'm speaking up for those who aren't, but are still subjected to having a cop parachuted into their midst for what amounts to a fishing expedition. There's a particular sound that I always associate with these kinds of tactics. It's the same sound that I hear in my head when I read about undercover prostitution stings. It's the sound of clumping boots forming an iron ring of entrapment.
------------------------------------------------------------------- Mentally Ill Commit Less Crime Than Alcoholics (Britain's 'Independent' Says A Study Published Today In 'The British Journal Of Psychiatry,' Based On Statistical Research Carried Out In Australia, Shows The Risk Of A Serious Crime Being Committed By Someone Who Is Mentally Ill Is Similar To That Of Someone In Their Teens Or Twenties - Alcoholics And Other Drug Addicts Are Twice As Likely To Commit A Violent Crime As A Schizophrenic - But No Breakdown Is Offered Of The Proportion Of Alcoholics Compared To Other 'Drug Abusers,' Or What Other Drugs Were Abused, Or Even How Abuse Was Defined) Date: Tue, 02 Jun 1998 02:16:36 -0400 To: mapnews@mapinc.org From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) Subject: MN: UK: Mentally Ill Commit Less Crime Than Alcoholics Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Newshawk: Martin Cooke Pubdate: Mon, 01 Jun 1998 Source: Independent, The (UK) Contact: letters@independent.co.uk Website: http://www.independent.co.uk/ Author: Glenda Cooper, Social Affairs Correspondent MENTALLY ILL COMMIT LESS CRIME THAN ALCOHOLICS Alcoholics and drug addicts are twice as likely to commit a violent crime as someone who suffers from schizophrenia, according to a new study. The risk of a serious crime being committed by someone who is mentally ill is similar to that of someone in their teens or twenties but according to the authors does not justify submitting them to increased institutional care. A study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry today found that even when mentally ill patients did offend, the incident was more likely to be associated with drugs and alcohol abuse than their condition. Any potential link between mental illness and violent crime has been fiercely argued between those who point to a number of "care in the community" tragedies where patients known to psychiatric services had harmed others and campaigners who have said that mental patients are far more likely to harm themselves than others. While one-quarter of those convicted of serious crimes had had contact with the mental health services, the vast bulk of these were either drug abusers or alcoholics or suffered from personality disorders other than schizophrenia or serious mental illnesses. Most had begun their criminal career before having any contact with psychiatric services. The study, which was carried out in Australia, linked two databases, the first being all convictions between 1993 and 1995 and the second a state-wide psychiatric case register. Over the three years studied, 2,153 people were convicted for violent crimes of whom 70 had had treatment for schizophrenia. For men, this was a rate of some three to five times higher than for the general population. But when substance abuse was taken into account, the picture altered. Those with schizophrenia but not substance abuse problems were only marginally more likely to receive convictions for violence and were no more likely to commit violent offences than young people in their teens and twenties. They were significantly less likely to offend in this manner than alcohol and drug abusers without mental illness. The authors conclude that the increase in serious criminal offending in schizophrenia is "modest" and say that the relationship is so tenuous between the illness and the crime that prediction of serious violence is "virtually impossible". "It does the mentally disordered a serious injury to confuse their behaviour - which may indeed be frightening and distressing - with murderous behaviour and call for measures which would only be justified to prevent the most serious forms of violence to be applied to large groups of the mentally ill," they say. The data reveals that those convicted of a violent offence are more than twice as likely to have had a primary diagnosis of substance misuse as of schizophrenia. "This new research knocks on the head the idea that people with schizophrenia are generally dangerous," said Liz Sayce, policy director of the mental health charity Mind. "This assumption is deeply distressing to people who have schizophrenia, most of whom have never committed an act of violence in their lives."
------------------------------------------------------------------- Riots In Geneva ('The Spotlight' Says Thousands Of Anti-Globalist Protesters Rampaged Through The Streets May 16-17 In The Worst Public Disturbances In Switzerland In Memory) Date: Wed, 03 Jun 1998 03:28:54 -0700 From: Paul Freedom (nepal@teleport.com) Organization: Oregon Libertarian Patriots To: Cannabis Patriots (cannabis-patriots-l@teleport.com), "libnw@circuit.com" (libnw@circuit.com) Subject: CanPat> [Fwd: Riots in Geneva] Date: Tue, 02 Jun 1998 12:56:38 -0500 To: butterb@connecti.com From: Bill Utterback (butterb@connecti.com) Subject: Riots in Geneva Geneva, Switzerland - In the worst public disturbances in Switzerland in memory, thousands of anti-globalist protesters rampaged through the streets here May 16-17, smashing shops and cars and fighting with police and Swiss army personnel brought in as reinforcements Of particular shock to the Swiss government was the presence of many Swiss citizens among the protesters. The protesters targeted all the most representative emblems of globalism such as big banks, big multi-national corporations, big international bureaucracies such as the International Labor Organization and the World Trade Organization. Many Swiss people and foreigners were amazed that the three day riot was only covered in their local newspapers and television. Damage to the city was calculated in the millions. From the June 1st edition of THE SPOTLIGHT -------------------------------------------------------------------
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