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

Advocates Of Medical Marijuana File Petition Signatures On Deadline
(An 'Associated Press' Article In 'The Las Vegas Sun' Notes Nevadans
For Medical Rights Filed Signatures Tuesday For A Statewide Initiative
On Medical Marijuana - The Big Concern For Backers Of The Petition
Was Whether They'd Comply With The Law Requiring The Minimum Number
Of Petition Signers To Include 10 Percent Of The Voters
In At Least 13 Counties)

Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 22:11:32 -0400
To: medmj@drcnet.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US NV: Advocates Of Medical Marijuana
File Petition Signatures On Deadline
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: compassion23@geocities.com (Frank S. World)
Source: Las Vegas Sun (NV)
Author: Brendan Riley, Associated Press
Pubdate: 16 Jun 1998
Contact: letters@lasvegassun.com
Website: http://www.lasvegassun.com/

ADVOCATES OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA FILE PETITION SIGNATURES ON DEADLINE

CARSON CITY, Nev. - Advocates of a plan to authorize marijuana for medical
treatment in Nevada met a Tuesday deadline for securing a spot on the
November ballot.

Petitions were handed to clerks in 13 of Nevada's 17 counties, the bare
minimum under state law. Ballot status won't be known until the clerks
check to see if the petitions have at least 46,764 signatures.

Counties that didn't get the "Nevadans for Medical Rights" petitions
included Carson City, Lincoln, Storey and Eureka, the secretary of state's
office said.

The proposal would have to win voter approval this November and again in
November 2000 before it could take effect.

The big concern for backers of the petition was whether they'd comply with
the law that requires the minimum number of petition signers to include 10
percent of the voters in at least 13 counties.

NMR spokesman Dan Hart of Las Vegas said the number of signatures wasn't
the problem - but the geographical requirement presented a roadblock.

NMR is part of the same group that launched a successful 1996 medical
marijuana petition in California. But a big legal battle developed over
distribution through "cannabis clubs."

However, Hart has said the problems in California shouldn't happen here.

"The way this is worded, once it is passed it will be policed
appropriately," he added.

And even though Nevada's laws against marijuana are much harsher than
California's, Hart predicted the initiative would succeed because the
state's voters are "fiercely protective of individual rights."

Under the plan, marijuana could be used by anyone suffering from cancer,
glaucoma, AIDS, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, or from severe nausea caused
by other "chronic or debilitating medical conditions."

A person who wants to use marijuana would need a go-ahead from a doctor,
and any use of the drug by a minor would have to be approved in writing
both by a doctor and the minor's parents.

A registry of patients authorized to use marijuana for medical purposes
would be available to police if they needed to verify a claim of legal use.

A final section says an insurer wouldn't have to reimburse a health care
policyholder for the cost of buying marijuana, and an employer wouldn't
have to make accommodations for pot-smoking by sick employees.

Despite the careful wording, the Nevada Medical Association and some law
enforcement groups have said they won't back the initiative petition.

The 1,100-member NMA says it doesn't believe there have been enough
scientific studies to show marijuana is a valuable tool in helping people
with diseases such as cancer.

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

Reno Joins Crowd In Mourning Victim Of Border Shooting
('The Arizona Daily Star' Covers The Funeral Of The Prohibition Agent
Allegedly Killed By Marijuana Smugglers Along The Arizona-Mexico Border -
The Usual Suspects Are Being Rounded Up)

Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 13:11:03 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US AZ: Reno Joins Crowd In Mourning Victim Of Border Shooting
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: compassion23@geocities.com (Frank S. World)
Pubdate: Tue, 16 Jun 1998
Source: Arizona Daily Star
Contact: letters@azstarnet.com
Website: http://www.azstarnet.com/
Author: Tim Steller The Arizona Daily Star

RENO JOINS CROWD IN MOURNING VICTIM OF BORDER SHOOTING

Arizona Border Patrol agents got a chance yesterday to mourn Alexander
Kirpnick, the fellow agent who was slain near Nogales on June 3.

About 1,500 agents and others, including U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno,
gathered in Tucson Electric Park for a service in Kirpnick's memory.

Officials also announced yesterday that a third suspect was arrested in
Kirpnick's killing. Kirpnick was shot through the head in the early morning
while trying to arrest a group of suspected marijuana smugglers outside
Nogales.

Mexican police arrested a 25-year-old man on Thursday, the same day they
arrested Bernardo Velardez Lopez, said Steve McCraw, assistant special
agent in charge of the FBI's Tucson office. McCraw would not name the third
suspect, who remains in custody in Nogales, Sonora.

Yesterday, officials pledged to prosecute all the suspects in the killing
of Kirpnick, who immigrated to the United States from the Soviet Union in
1988.

``He represents what America means to us all,'' Reno said. Kirpnick ``came
seeking freedom and gave his country that last measure of devotion.

``I am so proud of him, so proud of the Border Patrol and so proud of the
people who work so hard for the principles he defended,'' she said.

The third arrest in Kirpnick's killing leaves only one suspect free, McCraw
said. The FBI believes only four marijuana smugglers were present when
Kirpnick was killed.

The Border Patrol initially reported five smugglers were present, along
with Kirpnick's fellow agent.

Manuel Gamez, 26, was arrested near the scene of the crime, about two miles
north of the U.S.-Mexican border, on June 3. Velardez, 25, the suspected
trigger man, was arrested Thursday in Nogales, Sonora, and sent to a jail
in Mexico City. U.S. officials are pursuing the extradition of Velardez and
the other suspect arrested Thursday, McCraw said.

The presence of Reno and Doris Meissner, the commissioner of the U.S.
Immigration and Naturalization Service, moved some of the agents. The
Border Patrol is an agency of the INS, which is part of the Justice
Department, headed by Reno.

``It does mean a whole lot for them to be here,'' said agent Daniel Hann,
president of the National Border Patrol Council, Local 2544. ``It means
they at least care.''

Chief Patrol Agent Ron Sanders presented Kirpnick's badge and credentials
to Kirpnick's father and sister, who attended the memorial service.

``The Arizona desert will soon erase the many footprints that Border Patrol
agent Kirpnick placed in the sand,'' Sanders said. ``However, the Border
Patrol will hold on to the experiences that they've shared with agent
Kirpnick. For they will be imprinted in our genes, and they will be passed
on to future Border Patrol agents.''

Agents fired a 21-gun salute in Kirpnick's honor. Six helicopters flew over
the baseball stadium in a ``missing man formation,'' one of them veering to
the southwest as the others continued on southeast.

Zhanna Kirpnick, the agent's 20-year-old sister, spoke a few words to the
crowd and sent a message to her brother's survivors in the agency.

``To all of you who are out there every day, please be careful.''

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

Border Agent Faces Murder, Drug Charges ('Arizona Daily Star' Version)

Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 21:20:56 -0400
To: DrugSense News Service 
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US AZ: Border Agent Faces Murder, Drug Charges
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: compassion23@geocities.com (Frank S. World)
Source: The Arizona Daily Star
Author: Tim Steller, The Arizona Daily Star
Contact: letters@azstarnet.com
Website: http://www.azstarnet.com/
Pubdate: Tue, 16 Jun 1998

BORDER AGENT FACES MURDER, DRUG CHARGES

A Nogales Border Patrol agent was arrested yesterday on suspicion of murder
and cocaine trafficking before he became an agent.

Drug Enforcement Administration agents took Hector L. Soto into custody
yesterday afternoon at the DEA's Nogales office.

Soto's arrest resulted from a months-long investigation of a large-scale
cocaine-trafficking ring, said John Bryfonski, acting assistant special
agent in charge of the DEA's Tucson office. Officials would not reveal
Soto's role in that ring.

Soto also is accused of the murder of Hernan Rodas in the New York City
borough of Queens on Feb. 2, 1994.

Soto, 26, became an agent about two years ago, said Ron Sanders, chief
patrol agent in charge of the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector. In order to
become an agent, Soto went through a criminal background check, which
evidently turned up nothing, Sanders said.

Soto apparently had not been charged with any crimes connected to the
cocaine ring before yesterday, Sanders said.

Soto's Border Patrol annual salary as of January was $26,075, according to
Immigration and Naturalization Service documents. Under normal procedures,
he would be suspended with pay after the charges become public, Sanders said.

Soto will make an initial appearance today in U.S. District Court.
Depending on the court documents that become public in the case, the Border
Patrol could pursue Soto's termination before trial, Sanders said.

Sanders found out about the arrest only a few hours after the memorial
service for slain Border Patrol agent Alexander Kirpnick, who also was
based in Nogales. (Related story on Page 1B.) Bryfonski said he regretted
the coincidence.

``The last thing we wanted to have happen was for these two events to
coincide with each other,'' he said. The arrest was planned before the
killing occurred, and the timing was determined by other parts of the
investigation, Bryfonski added.

New York City police and the DEA's office there led the investigation of
the cocaine trafficking ring.

Soto is not the first Arizona Border Patrol agent to face drug-related
charges.

In May 1997, former Border Patrol agent Jorge Luis Mancha was convicted of
importing cocaine and marijuana. Mancha used his position as an agent to
help bring drugs across the border near Douglas. He was sentenced to 30
years in prison.

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

Marine Corps Report Clears Corporal In Shooting Death Of Texas Teen-Ager
('The Houston Chronicle' Says Marine Investigators Concluded In A Report
Released Monday That It Was Perfectly Legal For One Of Their Own
Camouflaged Anti-Drug Snipers To Kill High School Goatherd
Esequiel Hernandez Jr. Near The Texas-Mexico Border Last Year)

Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 12:34:36 -0700
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US TX: Marine Corps Report Clears Corporal
in Shooting Death of Texas Teen-Ager
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Art Smart 
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Contact: viewpoints@chron.com
Website: http://www.chron.com/
Pubdate: Tue, 16 Jun 1998

MARINE CORPS REPORT CLEARS CORPORAL IN SHOOTING DEATH OF TEXAS TEEN-AGER

EL PASO (AP) -- A serviceman acted within the law when he fatally shot a
West Texas teen-ager while on a border drug patrol, Marine Corps
investigators concluded in a report released Monday.

The probe concluded that Cpl. Clemente Banuelos was protecting a fellow
Marine when he killed Esequiel Hernandez Jr. in Redford, a rural Rio Grande
community 200 miles southeast of El Paso, according to a statement released
by the Corps. It called Hernandez's death tragic but noted it "was not the
result of a criminal act." An investigative report recommended against
punishment for Banuelos and the other Marines who were with him.

The Marine investigation represents the fourth time the servicemen were
cleared of wrongdoing in Hernandez's death.

Bill Weinacht, an attorney for Hernandez's family, did not return a phone
call seeking comment.

A state and a federal grand jury each declined to indict Banuelos in the
shooting. An investigation by Joint Task Force 6, an agency that
coordinates anti-drug missions between the military and civilian police,
also concluded the Marines acted within mission guidelines.

Hernandez, 18, was killed May 20, 1997, after crossing paths with Banuelos
and three other Marines conducting anti-drug surveillance on the Rio Grande
at the request of the Border Patrol. According to the military, Hernandez,
who was out tending goats, fired at the Marines twice and had raised his
.22-caliber rifle a third time when Banuelos shot him once with an M-16.

Hernandez's family disputes the military's story, saying the teen would
never knowingly have shot at anyone and only carried the rifle to protect
his livestock from wild dogs and occasionally shoot targets.

The shooting prompted a national outcry by civil rights advocates and led
to the suspension of armed military patrols on the border.

Military officials say such operations may be discontinued altogether.

Looking beyond the Hernandez shooting, the Marine Corps investigation also
determined such missions received an unacceptable level of support from
higher headquarters.

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

Don't Militarize Border ('Waco Tribune-Herald' Columnist John Young
Says Governor George W. Bush And Other Texans Should Join In The Outrage
Of Arizona Governor Jane Hull Over An Amendment To The Defense Bill
That Would Authorize Putting US Military Troops Along The Border With Mexico)

Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 03:22:25 -0400
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US TX: Column: Don't Militarize Border
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: John F. Wilson
Pubdate: Tue, 16 Jun 1998
Source: Waco Tribune-Herald
Contact: letters@mail.iamerica.net
Author: John Young
Note: John Young's column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.

DON'T MILITARIZE BORDER

Shortsighted plan would put national security at risk

Arizona Gov. Jane Hull has every right to be outraged by an unwanted
amendment to the defense bill that would authorize putting U.S. military
troops along the border with Mexico.

Gov. George W. Bush and other Texans should join in Gov. Hull's outrage at
shortsighted solutions dictated from Washington that would make matters
worse in the states that share a border with Mexico.

Rep. James Traficant, D-Ohio, attached the plan to the $270 billion defense
budget approved by the House last month. The bill will next be taken up by
the Senate.

Traficant would have a different view on this subject if he represented a
state that shared an international border, daily commerce, family
relationships and cultural roots with Mexico.

In a letter to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Gov. Hull said the prospect of
armed, uniformed soldiers patrolling the streets of border towns "creates a
terrifying image that threatens our very nature as a peaceful nation."

Like many Texas governors, Hull said she and other Arizona officials have
worked for years to strengthen relationships with neighboring Mexican officials.

"Permission to militarize the border is unnecessary and antagonistic to a
country that is working to overcome the many challenges of a developing
nation," Hull wrote to McCain.

The idea of stationing U.S. troops along the 2,000-mile border with Mexico
to prevent the entry of "terrorist, drug traffickers and illegal aliens" is
opposed by Pentagon officials, U.S. military leaders, and Barry McCaffrey,
America's drug czar, whose spokesman described the congressional plan as an
affront to our relationship with Mexico. "We could line up every division we
have in the U.S. Army and the Marine Corps put together, and you couldn't
cover that border," he observed.

Besides the fact that the idea is a diplomatic disaster, it is opposed by
the military, the Border Patrol, by federal drug enforcement officials and
by the officials and citizens of the border states -- not to mention that
the idea wouldn't work unless the United States re-instituted the military
draft, placed all U.S. military troops along the border and raised taxes to
pay for it all.

The Pentagon vigorously opposes the idea because it threatens the nation's
readiness. Soldiers aren't trained to be civilian police and the plan would
divert funding and manpower from the military's assigned mission.

Texans and the citizens of New Mexico, Arizona and California want to stop
"terrorists, drug traffickers and illegal aliens" as much as anyone. It's
just that they are a little closer to the problem than pop-off politicians
who seek election-year sound bites but haven't the foggiest idea what they
are talking about.

If Ohio's Rep. Traficant and his buddies in Congress want to do something
useful, they can increase funding to the U.S. Border Patrol so it can hire
more agents.

In the long term, the best solution is for Congress to help strengthen the
economies of the Latin American nations, build international bridges of
trust and goodwill and do what is necessary to curb this nation's appalling
appetite for illegal drugs.

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

Serviceman Cleared In Teen's Death ('San Jose Mercury News' Version)

Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 20:42:28 -0400
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US TX: Serviceman Cleared In Teen's Death
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Marcus-Mermelstein Family 
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Contact: letters@sjmercury.com
Website: http://www.sjmercury.com/
Pubdate: Tue, 16 Jun 1998

SERVICEMAN CLEARED IN TEEN'S DEATH

EL PASO, Texas (AP) -- A serviceman who killed a teenager during a border
drug patrol has been cleared of wrongdoing by the Marine Corps.

A report released Monday concluded Cpl. Clemente Banuelos was protecting a
fellow Marine when he shot Esequiel Hernandez Jr. in May 1997 in Redford, a
rural Rio Grande community 200 miles southeast of El Paso.

According to the military, the 18-year-old Hernandez, who was out herding
his goats, fired at the Marines twice and raised his .22-caliber rifle a
third time when Banuelos shot him once with an M-16.

Hernandez's family disputes the military's account.

A state and a federal grand jury each declined to indict Banuelos in the
shooting. An investigation by Joint Task Force 6, an agency that
coordinates anti-drug missions between the military and civilian police,
concluded the Marines acted within mission guidelines.

The shooting led to the suspension of armed military patrols on the border.
Military officials say such operations may be discontinued altogether.

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

Bush Replaces Drug Task Force (An 'Associated Press' Article
In 'The Dallas Morning News' Says Texas Governor George W. Bush
Has Formed The West Texas Narcotics Enforcement Task Force
To Replace The Embattled Permian Basin Drug Task Force,
Which He Shut Down After Allegations Of Financial Impropriety)

Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 12:12:12 -0700
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US TX: Bush Replaces Drug Task Force
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: adbryan@onramp.net
Source: Dallas Morning News
Contact: letterstoeditor@dallasnews.com
Website: http://www.dallasnews.com
Pubdate: Tue, 16 Jun 1998
Author: Associated Press

BUSH REPLACES DRUG TASK FORCE

Former team under investigation on allegations of financial impropriety

MIDLAND - Gov. George W. Bush has formed the West Texas Narcotics
Enforcement Task Force to replace the embattled Permian Basin Drug Task
Force, which he shut down after allegations of financial impropriety.

The members of the defunct Permian Basin task force are under investigation
by the FBI, the Texas attorney general's office and the Texas Rangers.
Officials at the investigating agencies have declined to comment on the
specific allegations against the task force.

The Texas Department of Public Safety will lead the new task force, which
will be composed of sheriffs and police from several area counties.

"I appreciate the willingness of the DPS to quickly step in and help during
this time of transition," Mr. Bush said in a weekend news release.

"This task force will help area law enforcement fight illegal drugs."

Permian Basin Task Force Cmdr. Tom Finley denied any wrongdoing on the part
of his agency and told the Midland Reporter-Telegram that the task force
was the victim of "a lot of infighting in law enforcement itself."

"It's a sad day for law enforcement when it comes down to this," Cmdr.
Finley said.

Mr. Bush's decision also angered members of the task force board, who last
week asked the governor to consider naming an interim director for the task
force.

"We are not going to let DPS run a local task force," Jeff Davis County
Sheriff Steve Bailey told the Odessa American.

"I guarantee this thing is not through. I hope everyone will show Mr. Bush
our disapproval of this thing in writing," Sheriff Bailey said. "I'm sure
going to, nose-to-nose, if I can get to him."

The task force was formed about 10 years ago to serve 15 West Texas
counties. It's funded with a grant from the Criminal Justice Division of
the governor's office and a matching grant from Ector County.

Ector County District Attorney John Smith said the investigation was
prompted 18 months ago by a letter from Yoakum County District Attorney
Richard Clark.

The letter contained allegations by a former task force member, Mr. Smith said.

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

Canada Enlightened On Issue Of Hemp (Op-Ed In The St. Paul, Minnesota,
'Pioneer Press' By David Morris, Vice Chair Of The North American
Industrial Hemp Council, Laments The Fact That Health Canada
Is Letting Farmers Grow Hemp, While In The United States, The DEA
Is Holding Hearings On Spraying Herbicide On Feral Hemp Left Over
From World War II)

Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 09:23:13 -0500
From: davewest 
Reply-To: davewest@pressenter.com
To: davewest@pressenter.com
Subject: Morris6/16: "Canada enlightened on issue of-hemp"
SOURCE: St. Paul Pioneer Press, Opinion, 7A
PUBDATE: 6/16/98
AUTHOR: David Morris (dmorris@ilsr.org)

(Dr. Morris is VP of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, St. Paul, and Vice
Chair of the North American Industrial Hemp Council)

Canada enlightened on issue of-hemp

In May, a few miles across the border from Buffalo, 50 Canadian
farmers began planting 2,000 acres of industrial hemp, the first commercial
hemp crop in that country in 60 years. That same month, south of the border,
the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) held hearings on its proposal
to spray lethal chemicals from planes to eradicate any remaining hemp plants
growing wild in this country.

Two countries, two radically different attitudes toward the world's most
interesting and controversial crop.

Why the difference? Because Canada's hemp policy is overseen by Health
Canada, an agency with no vested interest in keeping hemp illegal. In the
United States, hemp falls under the jurisdiction of the DEA, which receives
more than $16 billion to fight drugs and finds it in its self-interest to
demonize hemp, a cousin of marijuana. Indeed, the DEA receives a reported $500
million a year simply to wipe out wild hemp plants. Thus in this country, the
policy toward cannabis is both rigid and absolute. In Canada, the goverument's
approach has been much more flexible and sophisticated.

After a most intensive examination, Canada concluded that although hemp
and marijuana are both members of the cannabis family, they are distinct
types. One can get you high. One cannot.

The agronomic and biochemical differences are well-described by Dr. David
West, who received his doctorate in plant breeding from the University of
Minnesota, in his recent report, "Hemp and Marijuana: Myths and Realities"
(available on the web at www.naihc.org).

Canada's reintroduction of hemp began in 1994, when it granted permission
to tobacco farmer Joe Strobel to grow a test plot of 10 acres near
Tillsonburg, Ontario. The small plot elicited widespread public attention. To
inform the public, Canada's department of agriculture issued a remarkable
four-page bulletin on hemp, to this day perhaps the single most concise
agricultural discussion on that crop.

In 1995 the Canadian government issued permits for more than 100acres of
test plot in five provinces. This allowed police authorities to become
comfortable with hemp, allowed farmers to test different varieties in
different soils and climates, and allowed sufficient material to be grown for
industries to conduct product testing.

In 1996, Canada's Parliament altered its Controlled Substance and Abuse
Act to allow for the commercial planting of hemp. This year, even though many
of the permits were issued very late in the growing season, Canadian farmers
will still plant as many as 5,000 acres of hemp. Canadian farmers and
businesses hope that in the future the permitting process will be streamlined
and conducted by the agriculture ministry.

Meanwhile, south of the border, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has yet
to issue a report on hemp and refuses to even attend conferences on the crop.
The head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, General
Barry McCaffrey continues to insist -without offering any scientific evidence
-- that hemp is a narcotic and little demand exists for the crop.

The same month that Canadian farmers began planting hemp, farmers in
Kentucky and New Hampshire filed separate lawsuits asking the courts to stop
the DEA's ferocious assault on this crop. Meanwhile, the .DEA continues to
destroy millions of wild hemp plants, a process that plant breeders like Dr.
West decry because they contain the remaining germplasm from the 30-year hemp
breeding program conducted by the USDA at the beginning of this century.

Meanwhile, the demand for hemp continues to outpace supply. For Calvin
Klein, hemp may provide the fiber of choice for fashion designers. For Anita
Roddick, founder of the Body Shop, which launched its own hemp line in May,
hemp may provide the oil of choice for the cosmetics industry. Hemp beer,
first introduced in North American in 1997, has already garnered prizes at
craft beer festivals and demand is soaring.

Canada's minister of agriculture wants to make Canada the agricultural and
industrial center for a reenergize North American hemp industry. Canadians are
bemused by our government's head-in-the sand attitude. For Canadians, this is
the best of all possible worlds. Canadian farmers get to grow hemp. Canadian
industries get to process and manufacture it into hundreds of final products.
And all Americans get to do is buy the raw material or the final products.
Perfect for them. Not so perfect for us. This is what happens when four-star
generals make agricultural policy.

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

Minnesota Candidate Is Pro Legalization (A List Subscriber
Publicizes The Gubernatorial Campaign Of Jesse Ventura Of The Reform Party,
Said To Have A Real Chance For Victory)

Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 15:33:36 EDT
Errors-To: manager@drcnet.org
Reply-To: Rgbakan@aol.com
Originator: drctalk@drcnet.org
Sender: drctalk@drcnet.org
From: 
To: Multiple recipients of list 
Subject: Fwd: HT: MINNESOTA: Candidate is Pro Legalization (fwd)

ATTENTION MINNESOTA your vote counts this NOVEMBER

In November of 1998 your vote for governor counts more than ever. We
have a candidate that is "PRO LEGALIZATION" who has a real chance for
victory. Polls indicate that for Name recognition he is in a tie for
first place with Hubert Humphrey III ( a democratic candidate and likely
winner of the sept democratic primary ) and ahead of current St Paul
Mayor Norm Coleman ( a Republican party candidate and likely winner of
the sept republican primary ).

Jesse "The Body" Ventura is running as the endorsed Reform Party
candidate for Governor of the State of Minnesota. Minnesota votes
heavily for Reform Party Candidates. In Jesse's election for Mayor
of Brooklyn Park MN 10x as many people voted as did in the previous
mayoral election, with most of the votes going to him. It is interesting
to note that Jesse won against a long term incumbent mayor and against
both the Democrate and Republican parties (Reform Pary did not exist at
the time.) who joined forces in an attempt to defeat Jesse.

Jesse has frequently voiced his opposition to the War on Drugs and is
most vocal about the Medical, Industrial and Personal Use of Marijuana
being a Medical, Economic and Personal issue. He has expressed his
displeasure with the current situation and would like to see a change.

In the past the Minnesota Legislature has passed many bills dealing with
decriminalization of Cannabis. Most of which have been vetoed by the
Governor. With Jesse as governor when resonable Drug Law reforms are
made by the legislature we can expect him to sign them into law.

BIOGRAPHY:
Jesse was born and raised on the South Side of Minneapolis.

Jesse is a former Navy Seal, former professional wrestler, former
wrestling commentator, former commentator for NFL teams Tampa Bay
Buckaneers and Minnesota Vikings, former Mayor of the Fifth Largest city
in Minnesota.

Jesse has also been a movie actor in such movies as "Bat Man", "Running
Man", "Preditor", and many others. He has also appeared in an episode of
the X-Files (Jose Chung) where he played one of the "Men In Black".

Jesse is currently working as am AM radio talk show host for KFAN in
Minneapolis. You can find more info and even hear him over the net at
www.kfan.com

PASS THE WORD TO YOUR FRIENDS, WE MUST HAVE A COMPLETE
VOTER TURNOUT IN NOVEMBER 1998

Want more information check the following web sites.
http://www.visi.com/~coffee/JESSE/
http://www.jesseventura.com/

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

Appeals Court Tosses Out Drug Tax-Stamp Conviction ('The Associated Press'
Says The Third District Court Of Appeals Has Ruled
That A 1997 Wisconsin Supreme Court Decision That Wisconsin's 1990
Tax-Stamp Law Is Unconstitutional Should Be Applied Retroactively)

Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 03:11:09 -0400
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US WI: Wire: Appeals Court Tosses Out Drug Tax-Stamp Conviction
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: compassion23@geocities.com
Pubdate: Tue, 16 Jun 1998
Source: Associated Press

APPEALS COURT TOSSES OUT DRUG TAX-STAMP CONVICTION

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Anyone convicted of violating an old state law that
required drug dealers to buy tax stamps is entitled to have the convictions
overturned, an appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The 3rd District Court of Appeals said that a Wisconsin Supreme Court
decision that the law is unconstitutional should be applied retroactively.

The 1990 law required dealers of cocaine, marijuana, LSD, or hallucinogenic
mushrooms to buy stamps from the state Department of Revenue and display
them on their drugs.

Dealers convicted of breaking the law could be imprisoned for five years and
fined $10, 000 for each violation.

The high court ruled in January 1997 that the law violated a drug dealer' s
right against self-incrimination because it allowed authorities to use the
stamp evidence in prosecuting people for drug dealing.

The Legislature has since passed a modified version of the law.

The appeals court ruled in the case of Paul R. Benzel, 27, who was convicted
in 1995 of violating the stamp law, possessing marijuana with the intent to
deliver and being a felon with a firearm.

Benzel argued that his conviction for violating the stamp law should be
thrown out because of the high court decision.

Outagamie County Circuit Judge Joseph Troy rejected Benzel' s argument, but
the appeals court said he was right.

"We conclude that retroactive application of (the high court decision) is
required because failure to do so leads to the untenable result that a
person stands convicted for conduct which has been held constitutionally
immune from punishment, " Judge Thomas Cane wrote for the court.

Copyright 1998 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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

Thompson OKs End To Parole ('The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'
Says Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson Put An End To Parole
Throughout The State Monday By Signing What The Newspaper Claims
Is A Politically Popular Truth-In-Sentencing Bill, Even Though The State,
With 10,000 Prison Beds, Already Has To Export Some Of Its 16,139 Inmates -
Thompson Also Signed Into Law The So-Called 'Chemical Castration' Bill)

Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 08:33:21 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US WI: Thompson OKs End To Parole
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: compassion23@geocities.com (Frank S. World)
Pubdate: Tue, 16 Jun 1998
Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Contact: jsedit@onwis.com
Fax: (414) 224-8280
Website: http://www.jsonline.com/
Author: Richard P. Jones of the Journal Sentinel staff

THOMPSON OKS END TO PAROLE

3,000 New Beds Urged To Handle Increase In Prisoners

MADISON - With the stroke of his pen Monday, Gov. Tommy Thompson put an
end to parole in Wisconsin by signing the politically popular
truth-in-sentencing bill into law.

What happens next is an open question, but one criminologist said the state
should brace itself for a boom in the already-soaring inmate population.

"It's going to mean increased costs and increased prisons," said Walter
Dickey, a University of Wisconsin-Madison law professor and former state
corrections chief. "Contrary to what an awful lot of people say, we're
going to realize a boom in prisoners in the short run."

In fact, the ink on Thompson's signature was barely dry when Rep. Scott
Walker (R-Wauwatosa) called for 3,000 more prison beds to house state
prisoners.

When the Legislature begins work in January on the next budget, Walker
said, more funding should be approved to send 3,000 additional inmates to
private prisons out of state.

"Planning ahead for the next budget and getting these beds approved means
that we'd have the foresight to avoid a prison space crisis in the year
2000," Walker said.

Wisconsin has 16,139 inmates and a prison system built to hold just more
than 10,000 prisoners. The state has avoided a crisis by renting county
jail cells in Texas and federal prison bunks in Minnesota. More recently,
offenders have been shipped to a private prison in Tennessee.

Thompson signed the bill in Appleton, saying the law rights the scales of
justice for law-abiding citizens.

"The people of this state can take comfort in knowing that when a judge
sentences a criminal to 10 years in prison, he will serve the entire 10
years, not one day less," Thompson said.

Thompson also signed into law the so-called "chemical castration" bill. The
measure allows treatment of certain sex offenders with drugs, such as
Lupron or Depo Provera, to render them impotent. A court could order such
treatment as a condition of an offender's release from prison.

The truth-in-sentencing legislation, which both houses of the Legislature
approved overwhelmingly, means no parole for anyone committing a felony on
or after its effective date of Dec. 31, 1999. Felons as of that date would
serve their entire prison sentences behind bars.

Opponents argued that truth in sentencing would boost the state corrections
budget by $300 million. Thompson and other proponents described the parole
system as a sham and argued that a net savings would result if criminals
were kept behind bars, unable to commit new crimes.

Early in the debate, Thompson and Corrections Secretary Michael Sullivan
said it was impossible to estimate the cost of the proposal because they
had no way of predicting how judges would react to the law.

Judges now add years to sentences, knowing that criminals can get out early
on parole, Thompson and Sullivan maintained. If judges know parole is no
longer possible, they might give shorter sentences.

But that has not happened in Illinois, which enacted truth in sentencing
three years ago. Only in rare cases have judges imposed lesser sentences,
according to a recent preliminary report from that state's
truth-in-sentencing commission.

"That's the experience in most places," Dickey said, adding that he
expected Wisconsin judges to continue sentencing as they have.

He added: "I've talked to so many judges in the past six months, and their
basic attitude is virtually all the same: 'Why should we be the courageous
ones? Nobody else is. So why should we lower our sentences and take the
heat?' I think you'll see very slight modifications in sentences, but I
think in the run of cases -- probably not."

Wisconsin's inmate population will surge within a year or two of the law's
effective date, Dickey said.

Currently, 58% of all new prisoners have sentences of four years or less.
With parole, they are out in two years or less.

"I expect them to be getting the same sentences, and they're going to do
the full sentence," Dickey said. "So if they start doing the full sentence,
you're going to see in two, three, four years, that bulge of what were
parole releases."

The new law will:

Set a sentencing structure consisting of a prison term and extended
supervision. A felon would serve the entire prison term ordered by a judge.
Once the prison term is served, the offender would be released under
supervision for a period matching at least 25% of the prison term.

Increase the maximum sentences for violent offenses other than murder.
Instead of 40 years, a Class B felon could be sentenced to up to 60 years.

End time off for good behavior. Inmates who obey prison rules will go free
on their release date, no sooner, and sentences will be extended for unruly
inmates.

Provide for a commission to study the criminal code with a goal of making
the punishment fit the crime. The commission faces an April 30, 1999,
deadline for recommendations on overhauling the code. The Legislature then
could act on the recommendations. Failure to act would not stop truth in
sentencing from taking effect.

Encourage additional funding for prevention of child abuse and neglect,
equal to 1% of the entire budget for the Department of Corrections during
the next two years.

Under the current system, most inmates become eligible for discretionary
parole after serving a quarter of their sentences. If they are denied
discretionary parole, they are automatically released when they serve
two-thirds of their sentences, their so-called "mandatory release" dates.

The new law ends discretionary parole and mandatory release but does not
abolish the Parole Commission. The parole system would continue for those
already imprisoned and those convicted of offenses committed before Dec.
31, 1999.

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

Prison Ironies (Letter To The Editor Of 'The Detroit News'
Responds To Michigan Governor John Engler's Refusal
To Let Human Rights Inspectors From The United Nations
Tour Michigan's Prisons For Women)

Subj: Prison Ironies
From: Pat Dolan (pdolan@intergate.bc.ca)
Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 20:45:17 -0700
Source: Detroit News
Pubdate: July 16
Section: Home Page
Contact: letters@detnews.com
Website: www.detnews.com
PubDate: Tuesday, June 16, 1998

Prison Ironies

Gov. John Engler has told a human rights inspector from the
United Nations that he is not welcome to tour Michigan's prisons for women
Put aside the issue of whether the United Nations has any sovereignty
over Michigan. Such a tour, on the basis of the information available,
would be little more than a propaganda ploy for both the Justice Department
and the brutal dictatorships that make up much of the UN.

There is more than one level of irony in inspections and lawsuits targeted
at Michigan correctional institutions by the United Nations and the U.S.
Justice Department. The UN, after all, has presided ineffectually over
assorted genocides in Africa and the Balkans in recent years. And the
Clinton Justice Department either precipitated or was directly responsible
for the slaughter of innocent women and children both at Waco, Texas, and
Ruby Ridge, Idaho.

Yet these agencies now presume to dictate to Michigan on human rights.

At another level, decisions by federal courts and agencies going back
nearly two decades are responsible for female guards in Michigan's male
prisons and male guards in female prisons. It is the presence of male
guards in Michigan's female prisons that is the cause both of a federal
lawsuit and complaints by a Pistons New-York-based human rights
organization.

A Justice Department lawsuit filed in March of last year contends that
female inmates at the state's Coldwater and Plymouth institutions for women
are subject to sexual harassment and denial of access to appropriate
physical and mental health care. The Corrections Department has denied the
allegations, and the suit is in the discovery process before Detroit
Federal Judge John Corbett O'Meara. An earlier Justice Department lawsuit
on the same topic was dismissed for vagueness in 1995 by a different
federal judge.

In 1996, Human Rights Watch charged that female inmates in a number of U.S.
prisons, including those in Michigan, were subject to abuse and violations
of their privacy, primarily by male guards. The New York-based agency went
on to note that the United States is one of the few countries in the world
to have male prison guards in female facilities.

This was not always so. But beginning in about 1980, a series of lawsuits
and federal agency decisions concluded that female prison guards were
denied equal opportunities for advancement by being barred from male
prisons. A corollary was that male guards could be assigned to female
prisons.

As a result, there are about 1,200 female guards out of a guard force of
some 8,000 - and guards are distributed proportionally at male and female
prisons. Says a Corrections Department spokesman, "the department's policy
is that a corrections office is a corrections officer, regardless of
gender."

No one wants to see prisoners, male or female, abused. But it is up to the
Justice Department to prove its case. And the department ought to be
somewhat chastened that what federal agencies have pushed for many years as
a "progressive" policy - gender neutrality in the assignment of prison
guards - is now decried as a human rights violation.

Copyright 1998, The Detroit News

Pat Dolan
503-Pendrell St.
Vancouver BC
V6E 3N4
604-689-4342

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

PBS Transcript - Doing Time - NewsHour With Jim Lehrer
(Public Broadcasting Service Story By Tom Bearden
Looks At 'Truth In Sentencing' Legislation That Would Eliminate Parole
For Georgia's 37,000 Prisoners)

Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 11:38:22 -0700
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US GA: PBS Transcript: Doing Time - NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Marcus-Mermelstein Family 
Source: NewsHour (PBS)
Contact: newshour@pbs.org
Pubdate: Tue, 16 Jun 1998

DOING TIME

The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer Transcript

A "truth in sentencing law" in Georgia could eliminate parole for some
offenders. Is this good for the prison system? Tom Bearden reports.

TOM BEARDEN: There are over 37,000 people in prison in Georgia.

SPOKESMAN: All right, gentlemen. Head and eyes straightforward.

TOM BEARDEN: State courts hand down some of the toughest sentences in the
country. You can get 20 years here for stealing a lawn mower.

SPOKESMAN: You're here because you made a bad decision, gentlemen, and
today is the day to start making the right kind of decision.

TOM BEARDEN: Even so, some people want these inmates to stay in prison even
longer than they do now. They want to abolish parole.

Should parole be abolished?

SPOKESMAN: Your voters will respect your opinion much better if you just
vote yes, I want to abolish parole, or no, I don't.

TOM BEARDEN: State Senator Sonny Perdue is one of them. He sponsored what
he calls a "truth in sentencing" law during the last legislative session.

SONNY PERDUE, State Senator: We think the people of Georgia want truth in
sentencing when the judge says five years, that it means five years.

TOM BEARDEN: Georgia now has what's called indeterminate sentencing. The
judge sets a sentence within a range of years. For example, an offender
might get five to ten years for burglary. Periodically, the state parole
board reviews the case. If the board feels the offender has made sufficient
progress toward rehabilitation, they can return that person to society
under the supervision of the parole officer.

SPOKESMAN: I don't really think it would serve any useful purpose for this
man to go back to prison, and so I'm going to let him be released. And he's
a free man.

TOM BEARDEN: Perdue's bill would have asked voters to approve a
constitutional amendment that would have replaced the current system with
one that would mandate specific sentences for specific crimes. A number of
gubernatorial candidates plan to campaign on the issue this fall. One,
millionaire Republican businessman Guy Millner, is already running radio
ads.

GUY MILLNER, Republican Gubernatorial Candidate: As governor, I'll
eliminate parole. Criminals will serve their entire sentence.

COMMERCIAL SPOKESPERSON: Listen to Guy Millner.

Do criminals need "tough love"?

TOM BEARDEN: Millner says he believes in tough love when it comes to criminals.

GUY MILLNER: I believe parole sends a wrong message. When you take a
criminal and you give 'em a sentence of fifteen years and they only serve
five, or you give 'em ten years and they only serve three or four, it sends
a wrong message to victims' families, to the court, to the judge, to the
community. I want that criminal, when they get a sense of 48 months, they
serve all 48 months.

TOM BEARDEN: Mario Paparozzi is the president of the American Parole &
Probation Association, a lobbying group. He says an inmate who is granted
parole is not being released early.

MARIO PAPAROZZI, President, American Probation & Parole Association: We are
misunderstanding this whole business about parole. And in our
misunderstanding we are fueling the fires of public anger. They're not
getting out early if we understand that we've all agreed to the punitive
time frame as the first piece of the sentence. What folks need to
understand is that the second half of the sentence is beyond the punitive
portion. And if we abolish parole, all we're left with is the punitive
portion.

TOM BEARDEN: Paparozzi says the first half of the sentence is what the
judge expects the criminal to serve. The latter portion is tagged on for
two reasons: to provide a supervised transition period from prison to the
streets and to keep an inmate in prison if he misbehaves. The man who runs
this prison finds the prospect of having no tool other than punishment
deeply troubling. Warden Marshall Camp operates the Clayton County
Correctional Facility in Lovejoy, Georgia. It's a medium security prison
with just over 200 inmates. The prisoners are bussed out each morning to do
community service work, like restoring and painting recreational facilities
for the town.

Parole as an incentive.

MARSHALL CAMP, Warden, Clayton Correctional Facility: We rely on parole to
be the incentive for good behavior and for work motivation. This is an
institution that's run with a minimum of staff. It has a work mission, and
I don't think we'd be able to accomplish what we do now under the
circumstances of not having any parole.

TOM BEARDEN: Without parole, do you think a significant number of these
people would refuse to work?

MARSHALL CAMP: Already, there are some cases that come here that the parole
board refuses to release any earlier than the time that their sentence
expires, and they often decide and often tell me very honorably:" ain't
workin' here no more if I ain't going to get parole."

TOM BEARDEN: Inmates at the maximum security Diagnostic & Classification
Center say they see the same attitude among fellow prisoners who aren't
eligible for parole now. John Counts is doing twelve years for burglary and
has served two years. He could get out on parole four years from now.

JOHN COUNTS, Inmate, Diagnostic & Classification Prison: There's a lot of
people with life without parole. They don't have anything to lose at all.
They don't have anything to work towards.

TOM BEARDEN: Do they follow the program? Do they behave?

JOHN COUNTS: Most of them that I've seen don't. But I mean they're mad at
everybody.

TOM BEARDEN: So taking that hope away would make a difference?

JOHN COUNTS: I think so, yes, sir.

Abolishing parole: A "scary thought."

TOM BEARDEN: Counts said abolishing parole is a scary thought.

TOM BEARDEN: What scares you?

JOHN COUNTS: Having to spend 12 years in here. I mean, I've already learned
my lesson. I don't know what I'd be like after 12 years.

TOM BEARDEN: How do you think you might be?

JOHN COUNTS: I don't know. It's already affected me. I mean--you forget a
lot of things out there. Like, I've lost touch with all of my friends. The
only contact I have is from my family.

SPOKESMAN: You all have to get your mind right, get your attitude right-

Parole isn't the only motivation.

TOM BEARDEN: But Counts' warden, Tony Turpin, is less concerned than Warden
Camp. He says there are other methods than parole to motivate inmates.

TONY TURPIN, Warden, Diagnostic & Classification Prison: We also work off
of disincentives. You know, if guys aren't going to participate in the
programs, then we will keep those people segregated. They will not have as
many privileges as other people in the system. So it would work more for
the disincentives, things such as visitation privileges, store privileges,
those kinds of things would be affected.

TOM BEARDEN: Critics of the parole system argue it's not often used as an
incentive anyway, but, rather, a way to clear out crowded prisons. Parole
board member Jim Wetherington says that is true to some extent. When
Wetherington was the chief of police in Columbus, Georgia, he used to hate
the fact that criminals were paroled. But now he says he understands it
isn't just early release. Parole rewards good behavior and also keeps the
prisons from overflowing.

JIM WETHERINGTON, State Board of Pardons & Paroles: We try to keep violent
offenders as long as we can, but because of the bed space problem that
Georgia faces, some folks are going to have to be released.

TOM BEARDEN: Abolishing parole has been tried before by 17 states since the
1970's. In several it had unintended consequences. In Connecticut, for
example, the state was forced to release people early after parole was
ended, because the prison populations had exploded. The average time served
by offenders dropped to only 13 percent of the original sentence, because
of a need to make room for new offenders.

MARIO PAPAROZZI: In a parole system, people tend to do more time than in
systems where it's an automatic truth in sentencing mandatory model. In an
automatic release or a truth in sentencing state, everybody gets out on
that day. Where there's a review by a board, not everybody gets out.
Clearly, most of the people or half of the people stay in.

TOM BEARDEN: In Connecticut, as well as in Colorado and Florida, prisons
became so overcrowded after parole was abolished that the system was
reinstated. In Georgia, prisons are at full capacity now. Wetherington says
there'd be only one solution.

"If you want folks to serve more time, give us more prisons
"

JIM WETHERINGTON: My position is--and I want to speak for me, not the
board--but my position is if you want folks to serve more time, give us
more prisons, and we'll let 'em serve more time.

TOM BEARDEN: Any idea how much that might cost?

JIM WETHERINGTON: Well, it's going to cost big bucks, obviously it is, when
you start building prisons.

TOM BEARDEN: Cost estimates vary wildly from one to twelve billion dollars.
Those estimates don't impress Candidate Millner.

GUY MILLNER: Think about the cost, if you will, of a human life, human
pain, human suffering. I believe that you can do it cheaper than we're
doing in our state today. People have a right to feel safe, and somehow or
another we have this liberal influence in our country that says we can't
afford to keep people in prison. I don't agree with that one bit.

TOM BEARDEN: And State Senator Perdue says if his version of a bill to
abolish parole were to pass, it wouldn't cause overcrowding, because it
wouldn't apply to all crimes.

SONNY PERDUE: I think that some people felt like that we wanted to totally
abolish parole for all crimes. That was never the intention. The intention
was to allow the people of Georgia to vote on a provision that would have
abolished parole for certain crimes that would be defined by the general
assembly.

TOM BEARDEN: That's what North Carolina did recently. And Perdue says that
so far it appears to be working. But Mike Light warns that abolishing
parole for certain violent crimes will mean non-violent offenders will
serve less time. Light is a spokesperson for the Georgia Department of
Corrections.

MIKE LIGHT, Department of Corrections: Voters will have to realize in some
cases offenders will serve less in Georgia than they do already. Do they
want to make that tradeoff? Yes, rapists, and murderers and pot offenders
will be serving longer, will be there. But, again, the public has certain
fears of property and drug offenders as well. Do they want them
incarcerated longer, or do they want to make the tradeoff to keep that
certain core group of bad offenders locked up longer? That's the question.

Less time for crime?

TOM BEARDEN: A fundamental part of the argument over parole is whether
keeping people in prison longer prevents crime. Millner thinks there's no
doubt about that.

GUY MILLNER: The longer time the criminal serves in prison, the less time
they're going to have on the street to commit a crime. I believe crime is
down in this country over the last six years. And it's down because of the
fact that the prison population is up.

TOM BEARDEN: Paparozzi says that argument just doesn't hold water, that
crime continued to soar back in the 70's and 80's in the states that
eliminated parole.

MARIO PAPAROZZI: It may prevent them from committing a particular crime on
a particular day, because they will have been in custody. But the
likelihood of committing a similar crime with a different victim at a later
date will always be there.

TOM BEARDEN: Even both political parties sense great public support for
abolishing parole in Georgia, the two houses of the legislature couldn't
agree on the wording of a final bill this session. They'll take up the
issue again this fall, and most observers have little doubt that state
voters will eventually get the chance to decide the issue at the ballot
box.

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

Congressmen Call For Drug-Free NBA (According To 'The New York Times,'
Several Demagogic Congressmen, Including Speaker Of The House Newt Gingrich,
Said They Plan To Send A Letter Today To NBA Commissioner David Stern
And NBA Players Association Executive Director Billy Hunter, Calling On Them
To Adopt A 'Zero Tolerance' - That Is, Anti-Marijuana - Drug Policy -
Hunter Responded By Saying, 'If There Is A Marijuana Problem, It's One
Reflective Of Society' - Indeed, The Latest Survey By The Partnership
For A Drug Free America Suggests 48 Percent Of High School Juniors
And Seniors Smoked Pot Last Year, Up From 29 Percent In 1993)

Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 12:29:57 -0700
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US: Wire: Congressmen Call for Drug-Free NBA
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: compassion23@geocities.com (Frank S. World)
Source: New York Times Wire Service
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Pubdate: Tue, 16 Jun 1998
Author: David Nielsen

CONGRESSMEN CALL FOR DRUG-FREE NBA

Several congressmen including Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.)
plan to send a letter today to NBA Commissioner David Stern and NBA Players
Association Executive Director Billy Hunter calling on them to adopt a
``zero-tolerance'' drug policy.

The letter, tied to the Speaker's Task Force for a Drug-Free America, will
call for random testing for all illegal drugs and harsh penalties for
violators. However, no new laws will be proposed.

This effort is timed to the ongoing negotiations between the players union
and the league over the drug policy and the collective bargaining
agreement. The current drug policy, which expires June 30 unless the two
sides approve a new agreement, has been criticized for being lenient on
drug use, especially marijuana.

The NBA is the only major sport that doesn't prohibit the use of marijuana,
an illegal drug in all 50 states. The league, which weathered serious
cocaine problems in the late '70s, has seen several of its prominent young
stars ensnared in marijuana-related charges in recent months, including
Chris Webber, Allen Iverson and Isaiah Rider. In addition, a New York Times
survey last fall said 70 percent of NBA players abuse marijuana and
alcohol.

Hunter has disputed those findings saying, ``If there is a marijuana
problem, it's one reflective of society.''

Indeed, the latest survey by the Partnership for a Drug Free America,
showed 48 percent of high school juniors and seniors smoked pot last year,
up from 29 percent in 1993.

The NBA's 14-year-old drug policy does not include drug testing, with the
exception of a rookie clause under which first-year players are tested for
cocaine and heroin, but not marijuana. Players can be disciplined by the
league for using marijuana only if they are criminally convicted of an
offense.

The league has proposed that first-time offenders of the marijuana policy
would receive a five-game suspension. A second-time offender would be
suspended for six months and a third infraction would result in a lifetime
ban. Any player caught distributing the drug would be expelled from the
league.

Hunter has not been thrilled by this proposal, either.

``Our concern is that the league doesn't use marijuana as just another
vehicle to constrain and control our players,'' he said.

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

Top Court To Review Right To Remain Silent ('The Chicago Tribune'
Notes The War On Some Drugs Is Threatening A Basic Constitutional Right
As The US Supreme Court Takes Up The Case Of A Pennsylvania Woman
Serving A 10-Year Prison Term For Refusing To Tell A Judge
How Much Cocaine She Might Have Distributed)

Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 12:32:00 -0700
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US: Top Court to Review Right to Remain Silent
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Steve Young (theyoungfamily@worldnet.att.net)
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Contact: tribletter@aol.com
Website: http://www.chicago.tribune.com/
Pubdate: Tue, 16 Jun 1998
author: Glen Elsasser

TOP COURT TO REVIEW RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to review the case of a
Pennsylvania woman, a recovered drug addict serving a 10-year prison term
for refusing to tell a judge how much cocaine she might have distributed.

"I am thankful to be alive today, (for) getting away from drugs," Amanda
Mitchell told the judge at her 1996 sentencing. Mitchell added that she was
so addicted to drugs that she could not have been involved in a large-scale
operation to sell them.

As a result of her refusal to say more, U.S. District Judge Edward Cahn
relied on conflicting testimony about Mitchell's activities from members of
an Allentown drug ring and gave her the mandatory minimum sentence.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia last year upheld the sentence.

At issue in the case is a defendant's right to remain silent at sentencing
without being penalized.

Mitchell's lawyer, Steven Morley of Philadelphia, on Monday explained the
issue raised by her appeal: "The significant thing here is that she invoked
her 5th Amendment privilege for fear that her own testimony would make her
look more culpable than she was and drive her sentence higher and higher."

He stressed that Mitchell, a former factory worker in her mid-40s, "got
involved with people in the conspiracy primarily as a user" and has no
"reliable measure" of the drugs she might have handled in the few drug
transactions she was involved in.

According to Morley, Mitchell had no prior criminal record when she started
using cocaine in the early 1990s. At one point, he said, she had to sell
her furniture to maintain her habit.

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers had urged the court to
hear Mitchell's appeal and to rule that a defendant can remain silent
without penalty at sentencing.

"A criminal defendant who has pleaded guilty retains the right to assert
the 5th Amendment privilege against being compelled to be a witness against
herself at sentencing," the association told the court.

Furthermore, the association said, the increased sentence "was expressly
predicated on drawing an adverse inference" from Mitchell's silence.

The friend of the court brief cited Justice Department statistics showing
that 90 percent of federal criminal defendants whose cases are not
dismissed plead guilty as Mitchell did.

"In the vast majority of federal cases, sentencing is the most important
issue," the brief said. "Conduct for which the defendant has not been
convicted can add years to her punishment in the most routine cases."

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

Tobacco Bill Fight Rages On (An 'Associated Press' Article
In The Massachusetts 'Standard-Times' Says The Senate Wrestled Inconclusively
Yesterday Over The McCain Tobacco Bill - Senator Jack Reed, The Democrat
From Rhode Island, Won The First Vote On His Proposed Amendment
To Cut Tax Breaks For Tobacco Companies The Government Claims Is Advertising
To Children, But Slade Gorton, The Republican From Washington State,
Said It Was Unconstitutional To Condition 'A Privilege Available To Everyone
Else In The United States On Its Abandonment Of Its First Amendment Rights')

Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 20:36:36 -0400
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US: Tobacco bill fight rages on
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: John Smith
Source: Standard-Times (MA)
Contact: YourView@S-T.com
Website: http://www.s-t.com/
Pubdate: Tuesday 16 June 1998
Author: David Espo, Associated Press writer

TOBACCO BILL FIGHT RAGES ON

WASHINGTON -- The Senate wrestled inconclusively yesterday with a plan to
cut tax breaks for tobacco companies that advertise to children as
President Clinton and Majority Leader Trent Lott sparred at a distance over
a bill to curtail teen-age smoking.

In a sequence as muddled as the lengthy debate on the tobacco bill itself,
lawmakers tentatively adopted the advertising proposal by Sen. Jack Reed,
D-R.I., by voice vote after an attempt to kill it failed on a tie. Moments
later, though, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chief architect of the tobacco
measure, served notice he will call for a revote, likely to occur today.

The skirmishing came as Clinton sought to spur the GOP-controlled Senate to
action and Lott suggested revising the measure to bring it more into line
with the agreement that major tobacco companies reached with the state
attorneys general to settle lawsuits.

"Every day the Senate delays plays into the hands of the tobacco industry,
which wants desperately to kill this bill," Clinton said at the White House
as the Senate began its fourth week of debating the bill.

Appearing before a group of presidential scholars, he added: "I don't see
how any senator can now stand in the way of a bill that fights drugs, cuts
taxes and protects people from a habit that kills."

But Lott, R-Miss., offered a different assessment of the measure during his
weekly news conference at the Capitol. "There are big problems in it," he
said, adding that the measure has mushroomed in size far beyond what is
necessary to attack teen smoking.

Lott said he was holding out hope for a slimmed-down bill that was more in
keeping with the settlement the tobacco companies reached with state
attorneys general more than a year ago, including some sort of limits on
lawsuit liability for Big Tobacco.

Lott also spoke by telephone with White House chief of staff Erskine
Bowles, but there was no indication whether they were exploring possible
grounds for a compromise.

On the Senate floor, Reed battled for passage of his amendment to deny
tobacco companies regular tax deductions for advertising, promotion and
marketing expenses unless they obey FDA rules designed to curb sales
pitches to underage smokers.

"If they market to kids, then they lose their tax deductions," he said. The
Rhode Island Democrat brandished a direct mail advertising brochure that
one cigarette maker has distributed to smokers touting the Kool brand.

The company built a mailing list from attendees at a rock concert it had
staged several months earlier, Reed said.

In rebuttal, Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., said it was unconstitutional to
condition "a privilege available to everyone else in the United States on
its abandonment if its First Amendment rights ... We can and we should
limit advertising of cigarettes," he said, but that can only be done "with
the agreement of those who are asked to give up their rights to
advertisement."

The tobacco industry, which agreed to certain restrictions in a settlement
with the states, has walked away from the Senate legislation, saying it is
too onerous.

The FDA issued regulations to limit cigarette advertising in 1996, but the
implementation of some of them has been blocked pending the outcome of a
court challenge.

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

Clinton Urges Senate To End Delays And Pass Anti-Tobacco Measure
('Houston Chronicle' Version)

Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 03:29:24 -0400
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US: Clinton Urges Senate To End Delays And Pass Anti-Tobacco
Measure
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Carol Ann Wells 
Pubdate: Tue, 16 Jun 1998
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Contact: viewpoints@chron.com
Website: http://www.chron.com/
Author: Greg McDonald

CLINTON URGES SENATE TO END DELAYS AND PASS ANTI-TOBACCO MEASURE

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton urged the Senate on Monday to pass
anti-tobacco legislation, declaring that "the delays must come to an end."

"Every day the Senate delays plays into the hands of the tobacco industry,
which wants desperately to kill this bill," Clinton said.

"I don't see how any senator can now stand in the way of a bill that fights
drugs, cuts taxes and protects people from a habit that kills," he added,
referring to a number of amendments that have been added to the bill to make
it more appealing to lawmakers.

Clinton made the comments at a White House ceremony honoring presidential
scholars as the Senate debate on a massive $516 billion tobacco measure
moved into its fourth week.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., told reporters that he would
allow debate to continue through this week, but warned that if a bill
sponsored by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., or a compromise measure did not pass
before the weekend it would be shelved to make room for consideration of
various appropriations measures.

Lott said he planned to meet with McCain and speak with administration
officials to see if some scaled-back version of the tobacco legislation
could be devised that would satisfy a majority of senators.

"I think there's way too much money provided in this now beyond what's
actually needed," Lott said, expressing his opposition to the McCain
measure, which would raise the tax on a pack of cigarettes by $1.10.

"If the goal is to discourage and have a campaign to stop teen-age smoking,
and hopefully drug abuse, and to deal with, you know, some of the
health-care problems caused by smoking . . . you can do those things for . .
. a lot less than what's in this bill," Lott added.

Lott said he believes that a final bill ought to resemble the agreement that
tobacco companies reached with some state attorneys general more than a year
ago that would limit lawsuit liabilities in return for the companies helping
to fund anti-smoking programs.

"This bill needs to be much smaller than this, probably at least $100
billion less than it is," Lott said.

In his remarks at the White House, Clinton also criticized the tobacco
industry advertising campaign aimed at killing the McCain bill. He said the
companies are spending "millions and millions of dollars on an advertising
campaign designed to convince the American people (that the tobacco
legislation) is nothing more than a big government tax increase to create
huge, big government bureaucracies."

"It is absolutely false," Clinton said.

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

Man Battling To Sell Pot As Medicine Found Guilty ('The Canadian Press'
Notes Saskatchewan Multiple Sclerosis Patient Grant Krieger Was Convicted
Tuesday In Calgary Of Possessing Marijuana For The Purpose Of Trafficking -
Krieger Promised To Continue Selling Marijuana To The Terminally Ill -
Sentencing August 17)

Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 02:50:04 -0400
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: Canada: Wire: Man Battling To Sell Pot As Medicine Found Guilty
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Matt Elrod 
Pubdate: Tuesday, 16 June, 1998
Source: Canadian Press

MAN BATTLING TO SELL POT AS MEDICINE FOUND GUILTY

CALGARY (CP) -- A Saskatchewan man crusading for marijuana to be legalized
for medicinal uses was found guilty Tuesday of possession of the drug for
the purpose of trafficking.

But that won't stop Grant Krieger, 43, from defying the law. Minutes after
the guilty verdict, Krieger promised to continue selling marijuana to the
terminally ill.

"I'm on a mission. Laws have to change," said Krieger, who says he smokes
and eats marijuana to alleviate symptoms of multiple sclerosis.

"Society is denying us the right to nurse ourselves back to a much better
quality of health."

Judge Robert Davie rejected Krieger's charter challenge to the trafficking
charge.

Canada's Controlled Drug and Substance Act protects public health and safety
and doesn't exempt people who sell drugs even if they are in pain, Davie said.

Defence lawyer Adriano Jovinelli unsuccessfully argued under the Charter of
Rights and Freedoms that the law interferes with his client's quality of life.

Jovinelli said the guilty verdict came as no surprise.

"It was anticipated, because the issue wasn't an individual's right to use
marijuana, but rather, does someone have the right to give it to someone
else who he believes needs it for medical purposes," Jovinelli said.

"As the judge says, that's not protected under the charter."

Krieger said he ultimately wants to take his case to the Supreme Court of
Canada so that the issue is decided for all Canadians.

The former sales representative was charged last June after lighting up a
joint outside a Calgary courthouse in a show of support for a man who also
uses the drug for medicinal purposes. Krieger also acknowledged giving the
man marijuana.

Krieger gained international attention in 1996 when he was arrested in
Amsterdam for trying to transport a kilogram of marijuana back to Canada.

He has yet to stand trial on charges related to that incident.

Krieger, who's from the tiny community of Preeceville 230 kilometres
northeast of Regina, wants a government distribution network for medicinal
marijuana.

"There's a lot of sick people in Canada that have no way of getting what
they need for medicine," he said.

"They can't go to a drugstore for it, can they?"

Krieger will be sentenced Aug. 17. There is no minimum sentence for
trafficking but the maximum is life in prison.

"He's going to have to go to jail," said his daughter, Lindsay Krieger, 19.
"He can't pay a fine. He cannot do fine option. There's no other choice."

Krieger, who lives on a $750-a-month government pension, said he is broke.
His electrical power was cut off in his cabin two weeks ago because he
couldn't pay a $788 utility bill.

Krieger said since he replaced his prescription drugs with marijuana in
1994, he no longer feels suicidal. He praised marijuana for enabling him to
jog and rock climb.

Krieger said the judge is trying to protect society as a whole at the cost
of the terminally ill.

"It's new ground. It's walking safe," he said.

Krieger said his family is also paying a cost. He wants to live with his
daughter, but fears she will be arrested if police find his drugs in their
shared home.

"It's busting up my family and a lot of other families," he said.

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

Global Drug Arrangement Just Reeks Of Hypocrisy (Letter To The Editor
Of 'The Toronto Star' Points Out That Last Week's United Nations
Special Session To Expand The Drug War Was Simply Trying To Quash
A Free Market, But When Activists Call Out For International
Labour Standards, Human Rights Preservation, Or Global Environmental
Treaties, The Same World Leaders Say Such Institutional Arrangements
Contradict The Dictum Of Free Markets)

Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 11:34:55 -0400
To: mattalk@islandnet.com
From: Dave Haans 
Subject: PUB LtE: TorStar: Global drug arrangement just reeks of
hypocrisy
Newshawk: Dave Haans
Source: The Toronto Star
Pubdate: Tuesday, June 16, 1998
Page: A21
Section: Letters
Website: http://www.thestar.ca
Contact: LetterToEd@thestar.ca

Global drug arrangement just reeks of hypocrisy

Re Global pact aims to end drug trade (June 9). Those who keep a watchful
eye on international political matters will find much to ponder given the
implications of the Global Drug Treaty.

While it is commendable that leaders from more than 200 nations would put
their differences aside in order to preserve "the future of families on
every continent," the arrangement reeks of hypocrisy given the rhetoric of
our modern times.

When activists call out for international labour standards, human rights
preservation, or global environmental treaties, we are told by our
prominent leaders that these institutional arrangements contradict the
dictum of free markets and, furthermore, are undesirable in an age of
global economic flows and benevolent trade agreements.

It's interesting how easily these same leaders can come together in the
name of suffocating a part of the economy that they cannot control.

Furthermore, the reasoning behind the agreement on narcotics is the same
message that humanists have been preaching for years in the name of other
causes.

Do not sweatshops, income disparities and human rights abuses "erode the
foundation of democracies, corrupt the integrity of market economies" as well?

Is that not a "struggle for human freedom"?

Marc Flynn
Pickering

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

Beatles Producer Challenges Industry On Drugs ('Reuters'
Notes Sir George Martin, The Producer Of The 1960s Pop Band,
Often Referred To As 'The Fifth Beatle,' On Tuesday Challenged
Record Companies To Boycott Artists Who Take 'Drugs,' Even Though,
Of Course, He'd Have A Lot Less Money If He'd Followed The Same Practice)

Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 03:09:12 -0400
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: UK: Wire: Beatles Producer Challenges Industry On Drugs
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: David.Hadorn@vuw.ac.nz
Source: Reuters
Pubdate: Tue, 16 Jun 1998

BEATLES PRODUCER CHALLENGES INDUSTRY ON DRUGS

LONDON, June 16 (Reuters) - Veteran record producer Sir George Martin, the
man known as the Fifth Beatle, on Tuesday challenged record companies to
boycott artists who take drugs.

Martin, the guru behind most of The Beatles hit records, accused pop stars
and the fashion industry of glamorising drug taking and putting young people
at risk.

``I do hope that people recognise what the problems are and that they will
make it very clear that they will not knowingly, wittingly, use people who
are known to be drug abusers.

``I can hear some record company executives saying `you must be out of your
mind. Do you want to ruin our business?' But they must ask themselves, is it
the future of the youth of this country or their bottom line?,'' Martin told
a conference of British police chiefs.

Martin, 72, criticised Noel Gallagher, the brains behind British rock band
Oasis of portraying drug use as normal.

Gallagher, songwriter in one of Britain's most successful bands of the
1990s, said in a heavily criticised interview last year that taking drugs
was ``like getting out of bed and having a cup of tea in the morning.''

But Martin, who is credited with translating some of the Beatles most
adventurous musical ideas into practice, said he had always been disturbed
by the amount of drug taking in the industry.

Writing in a separate article for the Association of Chief Police Officers
journal this week, he remembered taking a ``very under the weather'' John
Lennon outside to get some fresh air only to realise he had taken LSD.

``They (The Beatles) knew I disapproved. I was a bit like a teacher at
school,'' Martin wrote.

Martin however scotched the widely-held belief that the Beatles song ``Lucy
in the Sky with Diamonds'' was a reference to LSD. He said it was inspired
by a painting by Lennon's son Julian.

Echoing a line in one of Lennon's most famous songs ``Imagine,'' Martin
urged record companies to state publicly that they would not sign drug users.

``I may be a dreamer but where do we start? If I am asked what we can do,
can anybody give me a better idea because I would like to hear it.

``If money is the root of it, if people are saying we will not do this
because it is going to damage our revenue, because it is going to hurt our
industry, then I would like them to say that publicly,'' Martin told the
police conference.

Record companies said they took the issue of drugs seriously but they showed
little immediate sign of responding to Martin's challenge.

``I think record companies do seriously consider those matters because these
are major investments that they are making,'' said John Deacon, director
general of the British Phonographic Industry which represents major record
companies.

``And I think if artists are taking drugs they would obviously very
seriously consider not signing an artist,'' Deacon told BBC television.

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

The Walls Are Crumbling (Translation Of An Article In 'Die Tageszeitung'
Suggests The Wind Of Change Has Been Blowing Through Germany
In Recent Months As Even Conservative Politicians Demand A Change
In Drug Policy)

Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 07:27:18 -0400
To: DrugSense News Service 
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: Germany: The Walls Are Crumbling
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Susanne Schardt
Pubdate: Tuesday, 16 June 1998
Source: Die Tageszeitung
Authors: Manfred Kriener and Water Saller
Contact: http://www.taz.de/~taz/etc/lesbrief.html
Mail: taz, die tageszeitung., Postfach 610229, 10923 Berlin
Website: http://www.taz.de/~taz/
Translation by: Susanne Schardt
Editors note: Our newshawk is the executive director for European Cities on
Drug Policy. Please check out their website at:
http://www.oeko-net.de/ecdp/

THE WALLS ARE CRUMBLING

Traditional drug policy has failed. I believe we change the trend by
prescribing heroin." This is not a legalise-it-disciple or a member of the
Green party speaking, it is the police chief of the city of Bielefeld,
Horst Kruse. Along with police chiefs and high-ranking medical officials,
even conservative politicians nowadays demand a change in drug policy. A
stock-taking on the occasion of today's German action day on drug policy.

"And it does move, after all. Drug policy in Germany is currently loosening
itself from a concrete and heavy inflexibility that lasted decades. The
ideological walls are not yet broken, but they begin to crumble everywhere.
The confession of faith that drug addicts could be cured with the forces of
police and justice loses more and more of its faithful.

The opening and enlargement of methadone programmes, implementation of
consumer rooms, the medically controlled giving of heroin - it is not the
legalise-it-disciples, not only social democrats and Greens that demand
this, but German police chiefs and CDU mayors, high-ranking medical
functionaries, ministers of Justice, drug policy consultants of the Federal
government, liberal, as well as conservative politicians. Especially with
the Christian democrats a changing of paradigm is evident. A TAZ-poll
revealed surprising sympathies in favour of drug policy reform in Helmut
Kohl's party. Although, with the Federal elections coming up. Many of the
parliamentarians do not wish to be outed as critics of the old strategy of
repression. The chamber of physicians, however, is more offensive in
promoting their new course. "You can always become smarter", Ingo Flenker,
member of the chamber's board argued when asked for his reasons to change
his view about heroin prescription. "We had to realise that the number of
drug deaths has risen to 1,700 in 1996 - about time to think about
enlarging the therapeutic measures." Flenker hopes for a change in view of
Federal Health Minister Seehofer (CDU) in this matter, who is at least
showing some readiness to "discuss" heroin trials - or for a change of
political forces in September: "SPD and Greens have signaled a long time
ago that they would welcome a change in drug policy."

Apart from the rather spectacular change of mind of the chamber of
physicians, the "Deutsche Haupstelle gegen die Suchtgefahren" (DHS) is
drawing considerable attention. The drug policy consultants of the Federal
government now also want to enlarge the spectrum of helping measures and
want to try state programmes of drug prescription and injection under
medical surveillance instead of prison sentences and forced detoxification.
However, DHS speaker Huellinghorst remains careful. He is moving on thin
ice - he sees the necessity of a drug policy reform, but he does not want
to go too far astray from the official policy of the government - after
all, the DHS is financed by Mr Seehofer.

While Seehofer is at least open for discussion, Eduard Lintner (CSU), and
drug coordinator of the federal government is the last to stand stiff in
loyalty towards the old course of abstinence and repression. Although he
definitely knows better, he still defames heroin prescription as a
"legalisation" of hard drugs, that he would never tolerate.

The Federal Health committee is to finally debate about consumer rooms and
heroin prescription trials next week. If the contents of this issue was to
be on the agenda instead of political party tactics and - discipline, the
vote would be clearly in favour of drug policy reform. During their study
visits to Zurich, even members of the CDU/CSU and the FDP party began to
rethink their points of view when confronted with the convincing success of
the Swiss trials. But the decision in Bonn about consumer rooms and "State
heroin" falls into the hot phase of the federal election campaign. A vote
in favour of a heroin trial could hardly be combined with the armchair
populism and fishing for voters at the extreme right end of the scale that
the Christian Union politicians pursue. Will the committee therefore try to
gain time and sneak out of a political decision again?

While election campaigners try to catch votes with law-and-order slogans,
many high-ranking police and justice officials have turned to a more
liberal drug policy. A good dozen of police chiefs from large German cities
urge for a change with increasing force. These men at the front have long
since understood: "Even if we had four times as many police officers, we
would not be able to solve the problem. We would only increase the prices
of street drugs and help the dealers make even higher profits", police
chief Dierk-Henning Schnitzler of the city of Bonn states. The mayors of
several German cities meanwhile take the demands of the police officials
seriously. Frankfurt, Cologne, Karslruhe, and Hannover have applied for
heroin trials following the Swiss model at the Federal government.

Within the framework of a nation-wide action-day, drugs- and aids- helping
services, self-help groups, and parents' organisations in many German
cities will fight for drug policy reform: They all can feel the wind of
change that has been blowing through the republic over the last months.
"This is almost like a breaking of dams", was the interpretation of Richard
Edgeton, the federal secretary of the Germany AIDS-Hilfe regarding the
spirit flowing throughout the nation.

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

Pray For Peace Foundation News (The June Newsletter
Of The Interfaith Religious Organization 'Committed To The Legalization
Of Sacred Natural Medicines For Spiritual Healing, For All People' -
Includes An Item On The Group's New 'Organic Food For Our Kids Campaign' -
'Dare To Keep Kids Off Drugs - Use Herbs And Eat Organic Food')

From: PFPFNews@aol.com
Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 21:29:07 EDT
Subject: June Newsletter

***

Pray For Peace Foundation News
June 1998

***

NATIONS DISCUSS DRUG POLICY

UNITED NATIONS--As a result of the June 8, 9 and 10 drug summit, a hundred and
fifty nations endorsed a plan to curb trafficking, reduce demand, improve
judicial cooperation, combat money-laundering and reduce the supply of
narcotics over the next ten years.

Some private drug research foundations said the United Nations summit focused
too heavily on law-enforcement programs that chisel away at human rights.

Dr. Ethan Nadelmann, director of the Lindesmith Center, said, "Rather than
producing the intended unity, the drug summit exposed deep divisions between
drugwar zealots who advocate spending on a failed policy and the reformers who
want new approaches."

Pino Arlacchi, head of the U.N. Drug Control Office, told delegates: "We are
not starting a new 'war on drugs.' " He offered an alternative analogy of "a
doctor facing a deadly disease. Drugs quite simply kill people. And it is our
responsibility to find the cure."

***

Pray For Peace Foundation Campaign

To offer a positive alternative for parents who wish to keep their children
away from drugs, Pray For Peace Foundation has started the "Organic Food For
Our Kids Campaign." We urge parents to spend a little extra and drive a little
further to obtain organic foods for their families. Eating organic supports
alternative grocery stores and organic farmers. It is the most effective way
each of us can fight the trend toward genetic engineered, irradiated and
chemically toxic foods. Training the next generation to "Think Organic" from
birth will produce a healthier world in the twenty-first century.

Good nutrition and natural herbs can heal childhood emotional disturbances
such as depression and hyperactivity. Contact your naturopath or holistic
health practitioner for alternatives to antidepressants and other dangerous
drugs for children.

Natural health care will reduce illegal drug use because children who care
about what they put in their bodies will recognize the unhealthy nature of
manufactured drugs like alcohol, commercial cigarettes, heroin, uppers,
downers and cocaine.

In the tradition of the Last Supper, Passover and the maha-offering at a Hindu
temple, food can become a strong element in a family's overall spiritual
practice. Parents who take part in the Organic Food For Our Kids Campaign show
that they care about their children and the earth. We urge parents to make
good organic food a spiritual focal point of their home.

Guy Mount, Editor of Holy Smoke, endorses the PFPF campaign with this slogan:
"DARE TO KEEP KIDS OFF DRUGS: USE HERBS AND EAT ORGANIC FOOD."

***

ACLU'S AD CAMPAIGN

The American Civil Liberties Union has been running ads in The New York Times
to challenge the marijuana prohibition. The headline of one ad asks:

"If You Had a Choice, What Would it Be,
Marijuana or Martinis?"

"Millions of Americans who are highly productive and stable clandestinely
choose marijuana over martinis," the ad reads. "But while the government
classifies both substances as drugs, mysteriously one is legal while the other
is not. Why should that be so?"

ACLU Executive Director Ira Glasser said: "The criminal prohibition of
marijuana represents an extraordinary degree of government intrusion. . . .
The same people who are drinking martinis are pushing laws that would jail
people who prefer a joint. Where's the morality in that?"

Since 1937, the government has criminalized marijuana use on the grounds that
it is a dangerous drug. But Glasser said this claim looks more ludicrous every
year. Every independent commission appointed to look into this claim has found
that marijuana is relatively benign.

ACLU ads on various topics are scheduled to appear in The New York Times op-ed
section once a month through December 1998.

The ads refer web surfers to the ACLU's Freedom Network Website at
http://www.aclu.org/forms/nytimesad051298.html
Visitors can post messages to a bulletin board and access background
information on the subject of that month's ad.

***

Pray For Peace Foundation offers respects to Steve Michael, Act Up activist,
who passed away. Jim Graham, executive director of the Whitman-Walker Clinic,
described Michael as one of those "vanguard people" whose methods can be
distasteful but who effectively "clear the land, pointing out problems and
bringing drama to bear. That, in turn, makes it easier for others who come in
their wake."
Contact: http://www.actupdc.org

***

Father-mother God,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Lead us to act with maturity and compassion
and make our world as You would have it.
Day by day give us what we need to live.
And free us from our debt of guilt,
as we free others from theirs.
Teach us the goodness of Your kingdom,
for Thine is the eternal spiritual home.

***

PRAY FOR PEACE FOUNDATION est. 1995
http://www.steamboats.com/pfpf

Pray For Peace Foundation was founded to spread awareness, education and
devotion to the Great and Holy Mystery that is God. We accept all paths as
true; all religions are but branches of the same tree. We promote interfaith
dialogue and exchange programs to develop tolerance between religions.

Pray For Peace Foundation is dedicated to nonviolence (vegetarian diet) and
daily meditation. Pray For Peace members are committed to the legalization of
sacred natural medicines for spiritual healing, for all people.

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

[End]