------------------------------------------------------------------- September Cannabis Liberation Society Meeting (The Reform Group Gathers Wednesday Evening In Eugene, Oregon) Date: 21 Sep 1998 07:11:01 -0700 Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 07:09:13 -0700 From: Dan Koozer (dkoozer@pond.net) Reply-To: dkoozer@pond.net To: Multiple Recipients of List (cannabis-patriots-l@teleport.com) Subject: CanPat - Sept CLS meeting Sender: owner-cannabis-patriots-l@lists.teleport.com We are having a meeting on Wed Sept 23 at 7:00p. We hope to have it at Grower's market but the location hasn't been confirmed yet. I'll send another notice when the location has been confirmed. We are going to have an RN who is a "addiction specialist" and is pro-med mj with actual experience as to the help that med mj can offer to people trying to quit thier addictions. Also we need to discuss plans for the passing of measure 67 and the defeating of measure 57. Our next event is the Fall 1998 AUSO Street Faire Oct 14, 15 & 16 10:00a-5:00p at the University of Oregon. We will have a booth as usual but it will be too late to register voters for the Nov 3 election. We will be encouraging people to vote and gathering signatures on Oregon's best kept secret, the OPP re-legalization petition. Dan *** Dan Koozer, President Cannabis Liberation Society PO Box 10957 Eugene, Oregon 97401 Voice Mail & Event Line: (541) 744-5744 http://www.efn.org/~cannlib/ [Ed. note - No update was found as this was posted, but call the CLS Event Line for the meeting place.]
------------------------------------------------------------------- Legislation Signed To Allow Drug-Using Tenants To Be Evicted ('The Sacramento Bee' Says The Law Signed Monday By California Governor Pete Wilson Sanctions A Three-Year Pilot Project To Begin January 1 In Five Los Angeles County Courts, Which Will Allow Prosecutors To Evict Tenants Who Sell Illegal Drugs On Rental Property, And Also Whoever Pays The Rent, Even If The Landlord Is Opposed To Such Inhumanitarian State-Enforced Homelessness) From: "W.H.E.N. - Bob Owen" (when@olywa.net) To: "-News" (when@hemp.net) Subject: Legislation signed to allow drug-using tenants to be evicted Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 19:16:24 -0700 Sender: owner-when@hemp.net Source: Sacramento Bee Pubdate: September 21, 1998 Online: http://www.sacbee.com/news/ calreport/wrapper.cgi/N349.html Writer: No byline Newshawk: ccross@november Legislation signed to allow drug-using tenants to be evicted LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Los Angeles County prosecutors will be allowed to evict tenants who sell illegal drugs on rental property - even if their landlords turn a blind eye - under legislation signed Monday by Gov Pete Wilson The measure, authored by Assemblywoman Sally Havice, D-Artesia, approves a three-year pilot project in five Los Angeles County courts. It takes effect Jan. 1 "Drugs poison our children and pollute our communities," Wilson said in a statement. "But too often, owners of rental properties either turn a blind eye to this illegal activity, or fail to act out of fear for their safety. This has got to stop." Under current law, only a landlord has the authority to evict a tenant who is dealing drugs. Many landlords choose not to do so because they are intimidated by their drug-dealing tenants The current law also requires that even if only one person in an apartment unit is dealing drugs, all residents have to be evicted. The new legislation would allow for partial eviction, meaning only the person dealing drugs would be forced out, Havice said "The people who pay the rent, they get evicted too," she said. "This is going to create more justice and fairness. It's just not fair to do this to an entire family who are not involved in the illegal activity." The bill will be in effect for three years at five Los Angeles County courts: Los Angeles Municipal Court, Van Nuys, Los Cerritos, Long Beach and the Southeast Judicial District. The Judicial Council is expected to evaluate the program by Jan. 1, 2001 and report its findings to legislators.
------------------------------------------------------------------- In The Joint On The Job ('The San Francisco Chronicle' Looks At The California Prison Industry Authority, Which Makes $155 Million Annually From More Than 70 Factories - A New Study Done At The University Of California At Berkeley Says The Vast Enterprise Is Good For The Private Sector And The State Economy, Creating Jobs And Income For Many Californians Outside The Prison Walls) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 16:43:01 -0700 From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) To: mapnews@mapinc.org Subject: MN: US CA: In The Joint On The Job 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: San Francisco Chronicle (CA) Contact: chronletters@sfgate.com Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/ Pubdate: 21 Sep 1998 Page A17 Author: Charles Burress, Chronicle Staff Writer IN THE JOINT ON THE JOB State prisons staff $155 million-a-year enterprise with inmates Behind razor wire and lethal electric fences at more than 70 factories in California lies a hidden industrial empire, churning out an astonishing array of goods ranging from eyeglasses and flags to chairs and muumuus. It makes things that even Sears Roebuck & Co. does not usually stock, like the ``bear proof'' locker for $425. Many prices are hard to beat -- women's blue jeans for $12.10, men's shoes $31.25, 100 percent cotton nightgowns for $8.25. The home of this $155 million-a-year enterprise is the California state prison system, viewed by most people as the maker of license plates, not a vast network of modern industrial plants producing 24,000 varieties of 1,800 different items. Yet those familiar with the 15-year-old, prosaically named Prison Industry Authority know it has produced not only an abundance of goods but also a fair number of detractors - ranging from critical state auditors to prison reformers alleging exploitation and private businesses accusing it of taking jobs away from law-abiding citizens. Now, however, the program has received a boost from a new study done at the University of California at Berkeley. Contrary to the expectations of many, the vast enterprise is good for the private sector and the state economy, creating jobs and income for many Californians outside the prison walls, according to the report. If the prison industries were to vanish, the state would suffer a net loss of about 560 jobs, not counting those held by the inmates themselves, and $218 million a year in sales, concluded researchers in the university's Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics. About 50 percent of the business would be lost to out-of-state companies, the study found. The review, funded by the Prison Industry Authority, is the first ever to assess the economic impact of the program. ``Intuitively, people would have thought that you are taking sales away from the private sector,'' said the report's chief author, economist George Goldman. It is true that some sectors do lose out because of the prison-made goods, such as private makers of eyeglasses, but they are outweighed by those who gain, such as civil service personnel who work for the Prison Industry Authority and outside vendors who sell supplies to the program. To put the program in perspective, Goldman noted that its contribution to the economy is about the same as the state's commercial fishing industry or its pulp mill operations. Or, put in another light, it is about the same as a single moderately successful Steven Spielberg film, he said. Before he began the study, Goldman had little idea of what was going on inside the prisons, he said. ``I thought like everyone else, vaguely, that prisoners make license plates.'' The state prison at Folsom still makes the state's plates, as it has since 1947, but nowadays license plates are only 6.5 percent of total Prison Industry sales racked up by more than 7,000 inmate workers at 23 of California's 33 prisons. The wide selection of wares can be seen in a product catalog and on a new Web site, but there is a catch -- only public agencies can buy the goods. The operations vary prison by prison, usually with two or three factories at each. San Quentin makes mattresses and cleaning supplies, Tehachapi does silk-screening as well as mattresses and mulch, Ione makes various things from fiberglass. At Solano State Prison outside Vacaville, the first of the modern generation of prisons built in the California boom that began in the 1980s, there is no outward sign of the assembly lines within. Nor is there any indication after a visitor passes beyond the double row of tall fences topped by razor wire and the abandoned guard towers made obsolete by the new, deadly electric fence. But inside a plain, tan-colored building with walls of corrugated metal, men in blue jeans and blue chambray shirts line up along tables in a completely computerized, air-conditioned optics lab, making eyeglasses for other prisoners and for the state Medi-Cal program. Inmate Rodger Hill, who earns the top-scale pay of 95 cents an hour inspecting the new lenses, smiles easily during an interview and says, ``I prefer this job.'' The 42-year-old from Santa Rosa said he had to wait three months to get into the highly sought lab. That was nine years ago. But now the wait is longer. Inmate Ernesto Juarez, 39, of San Mateo County said he waited two years for one of the 60 openings in the lab. ``I really wanted to get into the field,'' he said. And in the nearby building where they make binders and fabric road signs, Richard Gregg, 32, of Clovis was on a waiting list for 14 months. Now, he says, he enjoys applying his prison draftsman training to the 75-cents-an-hour task of centering letters and Velcro strips on road signs. ``Just because you're incarcerated doesn't mean you can't take pride in what you do,'' he said. ``When my mom is driving down the highway, I tell her to look for this sign.'' Prison officials praise the program as a self-supporting enterprise that saves taxpayer money, furnishes the prisons and other government agencies with low-price goods and reduces idleness while teaching inmates valuable skills and good work habits. It also lets inmates reduce their sentences one day for every day worked, and provides a modest wage ranging from 30 to 95 cents an hour -- two big reasons for the waiting lists. But not everyone has had kind words for the program. A scathing state audit in 1996 contradicted the claim that the prison industries program is self-sufficient and found widespread customer dissatisfaction. Several products were priced higher than those in the private market, certainly bad news for the Department of Motor Vehicles, state universities and other public agencies required to purchase prison-made goods, the audit said. A follow-up audit found some improvement. The Prison Industry Authority took issue with the audit. Frank Losco, chief of public affairs, says it now breaks even, plowing profits back into the operation. It has already incorporated the new UC Berkeley report into its brochure, which now speaks of the program's ``positive economic impact'' in addition to other advantages. California's program is by no means unique. It is the largest of the state programs, which is not surprising, given that California has the largest population in the nation, both in prison and outside. It ranks in the mid-range in sales per inmate. And within California prisons, Prison Industry jobs are not the only kind of work that inmates do. At Solano prison, for example, about 97 percent of the 5,600 prisoners are employed, but only about 450 work in the Prison Industry programs. Most of the rest do a wide range of clerical, cleaning and yard-work chores, while a select 18 prisoners hold the choicest jobs of all -- earning near minimum wage in a joint venture making furniture for an outside private firm. CHART: PRISON INDUSTRY AUTHORITY Goods and services produced Product types 1996-97 Sales Agriculture $21,092,999 Processed food $12,204,781 Fabric products $32,015,730 Paper and wood products $29,587,434 Metal products $22,385,567 Other goods and services $37,907,581 Total sales $155,194,092 Source: California Prison Industry Authority 1998 San Francisco Chronicle
------------------------------------------------------------------- Seeing Through The Illusions Of The Prison-Industrial Complex (An Op-Ed In 'The San Jose Mercury News' By Angela Davis) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 16:42:32 -0700 From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) To: mapnews@mapinc.org Subject: MN: US CA: OPED: Seeing Through The Illusions Of The Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/ Newshawk: Marcus/Mermelstein Family (mmfamily@ix.netcom.com) Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA) Contact: letters@sjmercury.com Website: http://www.sjmercury.com/ Pubdate: 21 Sep 1998 Page C-1 Author: Angela Davis SEEING THROUGH THE ILLUSIONS OF THE PRISON-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX (Angela Y. Davis is History of Consciousness professor at the University of California - Santa Cruz and an organizer of the upcoming conference Critical Resistance: Beyond the Prison Industrial Complex. An earlier version of this article appeared in Colorlines magazine.) Imprisonment has become the response of first resort ot the problms facing people living in poverty. Our prisons thus appear to perform a feat of magic. But prisons do not disappear problems -- they disappear human beings. And the practice of disappearing vast numbers of people from poor, immigrant, and racially marginalized communities has literally become big business. Homeslessness, unemployment, drug addiction, mental illness and illiteracy are only a few of the problems that disappear from public view when the human beings contending with them are relegated to cages. To convey the illusion of solving them, an enormous amount of behind-the-scenes work must take place. This work, which used to be the primary province of government -- caging people, feeding them, keeping them busy or depriving them of activity, transporting them in handcuffs and shackles from one facility to another -- is now also performed by private corporations. The proliferating network of prisons and jails can now be charaterized as a "prison-industrial complex." And, as with investment in weapons production, investment in the punishment industry reaps a dividend that amounts only to social destruction. Almost 2 million people - eight times as many as three decades ago -- are locked up in the immense network of U.S. prisons and jails. In California alone, the number of incarcerated women is almost twice the entire nation's 1970 female prisoner population. Colored bodies constitute the main raw material in this vast experiment to disappear the major social problems of our time. More than 70 percent of those behind bars are people of color. As prisons take up more and more space on the social landscape, other government programs that sought to respond to social needs -- such as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families -- are squeezed out of existence. Even the deterioration of public education is directly related to the prison "solution." By stealing public resources, the prison-industrial complex has created a vicious cycle. For prisons not only materially and morally impoverish their inhabitants, they also devour the social wealth needed to address the very problems that have led to the sprialing numbers of prisoners. Because of their profit potential, prisons are becoming increasingly important to and enmeshed in the U.S. economy. Privatization is the most obvious instance. The stocks of Corrections Corporation of America and Wackenhut Corrections Corp., the largest U.S. private prison companies, are doing extremely well. From 1996 to 1997, CCA's revenues rost 58 percent, from $293 million to $462 million. Wackenhut's revenues grew from $138 million to $210 million. Profits, investment These companies are only the most visible component of the corporatization of punishment. Technology developed for the military by companies like Westinghouse is marketed for use in law envorcement and punishment. Prison construction bonds are a source of profitable investment for leading financiers like Merrill Lynch. MCI charges prisoners and their families outrageous prices for the precious telephone calls that are often the only contact prisoners have with the free world. Many corporations whose products we consume on a daily basis have learned that prison labor -- purchased at rates well beneath the federal minimum wage -- can be as profitable as Third World labor. Botd forms of exploitation rob jobs from formerly unionized workers, throwing then into the marginal classes from which prisons are filled. Companies using prison labor include IBM, Motorola, Compaq, Texas Instruments, Honeywell, Microsoft and Boeing. Not only high-tech companies reap the beneits. Nordstrom sells jeans marketed as Prison Blues as well as T-shirts and jackets made in Oregon prisons. The advertising slogan for these clothes: "Made on the inside to be worn on the outside." Maryland prisoners inspect glass bottles and jars for Revlon and Pierre Cardin, and schools throughout the works buy graduation gowns made by South Caorlina prisoners. Despite its profitability for corporations, the penal system as a whole does not priduce wealth. It devours resources that could subsidize housing for the homeless, ameliorate public education, open free drug-rehabilitation centers, create a national health care system, combat HIV, eradicate domestic abuse -- and, in the process, create well-paying jobs for the unemployed. Universities stunted Since 1984, more than 20 new prisons have opened in California. At the same time, only one new campus was added to the California State University system and none was added to the University of California system. In 1996-97, higher education received only 8.7 percent of California's general fund. Corrections, meanwhile, swallowed 9.6 percent. Now that affirmative action has been declared illegal in California, it becomes obvious that education is increasingly reserved for certain people while prisons are reserved for others. Presently, five times as many black men are in prison as in four-year colleges and universities. This new segregation has dangerous implications for the entire country. By segregating people and labeling them criminals, the prison-industrial simultaneously fortifies and conceals the structural racism of the U.S. economy. Claims of low unemployment -- even in black communities -- make sense only if one ignores the vast numbers of people in prison and assumes they have disappeared and thus have no legitimate claim to jobs. In the United States, the numbers of black and Latino men currently incarcerated amount to 2 percent of the male labor force. Their disappearance from the labor pool is an effective, if expensive, means of enhancing the employment statistics. Conversely, says London School of Economics criminologost David Downes, "Treating incarceration as a type of hidden unemployment may raise the jobless rate for men by about one-third, to 8 percent. The effect on the black labor force is greater still, raising the (black) male unemployment rate from 11 percent to 19 percent." Though the historical record clearly demonstrates that prisons fail either to solve social problems or to reduce crime, state policy is rapidly shifting from social welfare to social control. Surveillance is focused on communities of color, immigrants, the unemployed, the undereducated, the homeless, in general, those with a diminished claim to social resources. The emergence of a U.S. prison-industrial complex within the context of cascading conservatism, marks a new historical moment whose dangers are unprecedented. But so are the opportunites. Resistance Am impressive number of grassroots projects are resisting the expansion of the punishment industry. It ought to be possible to link these efforts to create radical, nationally visible movements that can legitimize critiques of the prison industrial complex. It ought to be possible to build movements in defense of prisoners' human rights and movements that persuasively argue that what we need is not new prisons but new health care, housing, education, drug programs, jobs and education. To safeguard a democratic future, it is possible and necessary to weave together the many and increasing strands of resistance into a powerful movement for social transformation. STRATEGY SESSIONS AGAINST PRISONS A national conference and strategy session, "Critical Resistance: Beyond the Prison Industrial Complex," will be held Friday through Sunday at the University of California - Berkeley. It will include workshops, films, evening performances and speakers including Davis, feminist Gloria Steinem and 1998 MacArthur "genius" award winner Ellen Barry of the San Francisco-based Legal Services for Prisoners With Children. For more information see http://www.igc.org/justice/critical or call (510) 238-8555.
------------------------------------------------------------------- November 3 Ballot Numbers (A Bulletin From Americans For Medical Rights Lists The Viable Medical Marijuana And Other Reform Initiatives Sponsored By AMR And Other Groups) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 20:32:08 GMT To: AMR/updates.list From: Dave Fratello (amr@lainet.com) Subject: Nov. 3 ballot #'s Now that Colorado's initiative has officially qualified, here's a complete list of medical marijuana ballot measure #'s in the different states: ALASKA - Proposition 8 COLORADO - Initiative 19 NEVADA - Ballot Question 9 OREGON - Measure 67 WASH. ST. - Initiative 692 All of the above are medical marijuana initiatives with support from Americans for Medical Rights. Also up for votes this Nov. 3: ARIZONA - Propositions 300, 301 - 'No' votes restore elements of Prop. 200 ('96) OREGON - Measure 57 - 'No' vote rejects recriminalization of marijuana possession D.C. - Initiative 59 - medical marijuana initiative sponsored by ACT-UP D.C. *** - Dave Fratello Americans for Medical Rights
------------------------------------------------------------------- Senate Joint Resolution 56 (The text of the anti-medical marijuana vow of ignorance to be voted on by the US Senate.) From: "ralph sherrow" (ralphkat@hotmail.com) To: ralphkat@hotmail.com Subject: Fwd: S.J.Res. 56 Text You be the judge Date: Fri, 09 Oct 1998 12:05:40 PDT you were right Peter. Ralph *** From: Drgwarwhr@aol.com Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1998 12:29:54 EDT To: ralphkat@HotMail.com Subject: S.J.Res. 56 Text You be the judge To all concerned, For those of you espousing the belief that S.J.Res. 56 will make Med. Marijuana a reality, you need to read the resolution. It looks like same bullsshit/different day. It is full of Whereas Drug war whore propaganda. Don't buy the bullshit and never trust the government. In case you have forgotten, there is a reason tobacco cannot be classified as a drug. It is not classified as one and cannot be under existing FDA guidelines. The same reasoning applies to marijuana as well. Marijuana falls outside the established guidelines of the FDA to be classified as a medicine. It is that simple folks. This bill leaves things the way they are. This bill defines marijuana as a drug and that is the real problem. Marijuana has to be reclassified as something besides a drug or by law, for the FDA guidelines apply. Ex. a medicinal herb. We must also remember, if the government can reclassify marijuana as a drug, this sets precedence to do the same to all herbs of their choosing. *** Calendar No. 594 105th CONGRESS 2d Session S. J. RES. 56 Expressing the sense of Congress in support of the existing Federal legal process for determining the safety and efficacy of drugs, including marijuana and other Schedule I drugs, for medicinal use. *** IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES September 21, 1998 Mr. Grassley (for himself, Mr. Kyl, and Mr. Hatch) introduced the following joint resolution; which was read the first time September 22, 1998 Read the second time and placed on the calendar *** JOINT RESOLUTION Expressing the sense of Congress in support of the existing Federal legal process for determining the safety and efficacy of drugs, including marijuana and other Schedule I drugs, for medicinal use. Whereas certain drugs are listed on Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act if they have a high potential for abuse, lack any currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and there is a lack of accepted safety for their use under medical supervision; Whereas the consequences of illegal use of Schedule I drugs are well documented, particularly with regard to physical health, highway safety, and criminal activity; Whereas pursuant to section 401 of the Controlled Substances Act, it is illegal to manufacture, distribute, or dispense marijuana, heroin, LSD, and more than 100 other Schedule I drugs; Whereas pursuant to section 505 of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, before any drug can be approved as a medication in the United States, it must meet extensive scientific and medical standards established by the Food and Drug Administration to ensure that it is safe and effective; Whereas marijuana and other Schedule I drugs have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat any disease or condition; Whereas the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act already prohibits the sale of any unapproved drug, including marijuana, that has not been proven safe and effective for medical purposes and grants the Food and Drug Administration the authority to enforce this prohibition through seizure and other civil action, as well as through criminal penalties; Whereas marijuana use by children in grades 8 through 12 declined steadily from 1980 to 1992, but, from 1992 to 1996, has dramatically increased by 253 percent among 8th graders, 151 percent among 10th graders, and 84 percent among 12th graders, and the average age of first-time use of marijuana is now younger than it has ever been; Whereas according to the 1997 survey by the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, 500,000 8th graders began using marijuana in the 6th and 7th grades; Whereas according to that same 1997 survey, youths between the ages of 12 and 17 who use marijuana are 85 times more likely to use cocaine than those who abstain from marijuana, and 60 percent of adolescents who use marijuana before the age of 15 will later use cocaine; and Whereas the rate of illegal drug use among youth is linked to their perceptions of the health and safety risks of those drugs, and the ambiguous cultural messages about marijuana use are contributing to a growing acceptance of marijuana use among children and teenagers: Now, therefore, be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That-- (1) Congress continues to support the existing Federal legal process for determining the safety and efficacy of drugs and opposes efforts to circumvent this process by legalizing marijuana, and other Schedule I drugs, for medicinal use without valid scientific evidence and the approval of the Food and Drug Administration; and (2) not later than 90 days after the date of the adoption of this resolution-- (A) the Attorney General shall submit to the Committees on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives and the Senate a report on-- (i) the total quantity of marijuana eradicated in the United States during the period from 1992 through 1997; and (ii) the annual number of arrests and prosecutions for Federal marijuana offenses during the period described in clause (i); and (B) the Commissioner of Foods and Drugs shall submit to the Committee on Commerce of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Labor and Human Resources of the Senate a report on the specific efforts underway to enforce sections 304 and 505 of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act with respect to marijuana and other Schedule I drugs. Calendar No. 594 105th CONGRESS 2d Session
------------------------------------------------------------------- North Vancouver City Backs Drug Strategy ('The North Shore News' In British Columbia, Noting That A 1994 Canadian Alcohol And Drug Survey Found 13.1 Percent Of Canadians Use Opiate Narcotics, While 7.4 Percent Smoke Marijuana, Says The North Vancouver City Council Voted Unanimously Monday To Adopt The Lower Mainland Regional Drug Strategy And To Work With The Lower Mainland Municipal Association To Develop And Implement A Program Aimed At Curbing Drug Abuse) Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 16:06:12 -0700 From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) To: mapnews@mapinc.org Subject: MN: Canada: NV City Backs Drug Strategy Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/ Newshawk: creator@mapinc.org Source: North Shore News (Canada) Contact: editor@nsnews.com Website: http://www.nsnews.com/ Pubdate: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 Author: Liam Lahey, Contributing Writer NV CITY BACKS DRUG STRATEGY IT'S no secret Vancouver has a drug problem. What's a mystery is the lack of anti-drug action by the municipal governments surrounding the city's east side. With the adoption of the Lower Mainland Regional Drug Strategy, North Vancouver City Council voted unanimously on Monday to work with its sister members of the Lower Mainland Municipal Association (LMMA) to develop and implement a program aimed at curbing drug abuse. "We have a reputation for having great grass in North Vancouver and not the kind you mow," quipped Coun. Barbara Sharp to council while considering the proposal. The LMMA is seeking support from member municipalities for an application to the Federal Crime Prevention Program for funding to develop a Lower Mainland regional drug strategy. The project will be coordinated by the City of New Westminster on behalf of the LMMA. The application to the federal government will see the LMMA ask for approximately $1.4 million annually for five years. "When it comes to drugs and drug abuse we tend to focus on East Vancouver where the majority of the problem exists," said Coun. Bob Fearnley. "We need to develop a local criteria for public services (to deal with this issue)." In a frankly worded letter to Mayor Jack Loucks, LMMA president Janis Elkerton asked for North Vancouver City council to draft a letter supporting the association's request to the federal government for funding. Council agreed wholeheartedly to offer its support. "We need to seek funding from the federal government, we can't tackle this on our own," Coun. Stella Jo Dean said. "We're certainly not doing our best for the young people (in North Vancouver)." Dean found it particularly shocking that only eight provincial beds exist on the North Shore for severe drug abusers who are seeking rehabilitation. She was exasperated further upon learning that there is an eight-month wait for one of those beds to come available. Coun. Darrell Mussatto, who works as a paramedic, expressed concern about identifying the substances most commonly abused by young people. "I hope council realizes that a drug bogeyman does not exist and that alcohol is the most widely abused drug," he said. "I hope this strategy will deal with alcohol and recreational drug abuse." A 1994 Canadian Alcohol and Drug Survey conducted by the federal government found that 13.1% of Canadians use opiate narcotics, while 7.4% smoke marijuana. "The purpose of this strategy is to deal with this problem with the support of the whole Lower Mainland," Sharp said. "Several heads are better than one when dealing with this." In a glowing display of unity, councillors took turns expressing their undivided support for a regional drug strategy and collectively promised to take action. "It's better to build boys and girls than to try to mend men and women," Coun. Barbara Perrault added. The LMMA will submit its application to the federal government this month. Copyright 1998 by the North Shore News. *** From: creator@islandnet.com (Matt Elrod) To: mattalk@listserv.islandnet.com Subject: RE: Canada: NV City backs drug strategy (fwd) Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 09:24:49 -0700 -------- Forwarded message -------- Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 08:49:47 -0700 (PDT) From: Conlon, Kelly > Newshawk: creator@mapinc.org > Source: North Shore News (Canada) > Contact: editor@nsnews.com > Pubdate: Sep. 21, 1998 > Author: Liam Lahey, Contributing Writer > > NV City backs drug strategy [Conlon, Kelly] *snip* > A 1994 Canadian Alcohol and Drug Survey conducted by the federal > government found that 13.1% of Canadians use opiate narcotics, while > 7.4% smoke marijuana. [Conlon, Kelly] One out of ten Canadians use opiates? This can't be right; the author must have slipped a decimal place. KTC *** Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 13:09:20 -0400 To: mattalk@listserv.islandnet.com From: Dave Haans (haans@chass.utoronto.ca) Subject: RE: Canada: NV City backs drug strategy (fwd) At 09:24 AM 9/22/98 -0700, Kelly wrote: >> NV City backs drug strategy >> A 1994 Canadian Alcohol and Drug Survey conducted by the federal >> government found that 13.1% of Canadians use opiate narcotics, while >> 7.4% smoke marijuana. >One out of ten Canadians use opiates? This can't be right; the >author must have slipped a decimal place. If we include codeine as a narcotic (which it is), the number is probably correct. After all, no country takes a back seat to Canada when it comes to codeine consumption! Here's a blurb from the CCSA web site, at http://www.ccsa.ca/horiz94.htm . Reported are past year use (1994), which might be why the numbers are smaller than above: Narcotic pain relievers, such as codeine, Demerol (meperidine), and morphine, are the most frequently used type of prescription drugs (8.2%), with use highest in British Columbia (12.4%) and lowest in Québec (3.2%) . . . . In 1993, about one million Canadians (4.2%) aged 15 or older reported use of marijuana in the past year; use is highest in British Columbia and lowest in Saskatchewan. Cheers, Dave
------------------------------------------------------------------- Addict Needle Plan Considered ('The Calgary Herald' Says A Controversial British Columbian Plan To Create Government-Sanctioned 'Shooting Galleries' For Vancouver Drug Addicts Is Winning Support In Calgary As A Way Of Blocking The Spread Of AIDS And Hepatitis C) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 22:18:48 -0700 Subject: Addict needle plan considered From: "Debra Harper" (daystar@shaw.wave.ca) To: mattalk (mattalk@listserv.islandnet.com) Newshawk: daystar@shaw.wave.ca Source: Calgary Herald Pubdate: September 21, 1998 Contact:letters@theherald.southam.ca Author: Grant Robertson Addict needle plan considered A controversial plan to create government-sanctioned "shooting galleries" for Vancouver drug addicts is winning support in Calgary as a way of blocking the spread of AIDS and Hepatitis C. The B.C. concept would see safe houses created where intravenous drug users can get clean needles and shoot up heroin, cocaine and othjer drugs in safety. "An initiative that offers promise in controlling an epidemic shouldn't be discarded because it's a paradigm buster," siad Dr. John Gill, chief of infectious diseases for the Calgary Regional Health Authority. "The program is clearly focused on trying to stop the transmittal of blood-borne pathogens. It's novel, it's innovative and it's being developed in the apparent failure of existing programs. "One doesn't know if it will work, but let's see. If they get going properly (Vancouver), then maybe we will need it here," said Gill. The Vancouver-Richmond Health Board will this week consider a proposal to set up four injection sites in that city's east side. It's being touted as a last-ditch effort to stop needle sharing and to prevent overdoses, which claim the lives of about 20 Calgarians a year. The Vancouver proposal has drawn fire from that city's mayor and the B.C. Health ministry. Though Calgary's heroin problem is not as critical as Vancouver's and some U.S.cities, Gill said the program deserves a chance. Calgary has an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 intravenous drug users. "It's a Catch 22," said Calgary police Insp. Jim Hornby. "It's like setting up brothels for prostition - we're condoning something that is against the law. "There may be health benefits (from the program), but injecting heroin is against the law." Needle exchange programs have been in place in most cities for several years, but have only had limited success in slowing the spread of deadly diseases among users. One of Calgary's four needle exchange programs, which are operated by the CRHA, is at the Calgary Urban Project Society on the 7th Avenue S.E., an organization which provides health services to people in need. Lorraine Melchior, executive director of CUPS, siad there's no way her organization would offer space for a shooting gallery. "We have felt very strongly and will continue to feel very strongly about this," said Melchior. "We won't allow a room for people to inject or use drugs because it puts other people that come here like children and families, in danger." Mayor Al Duerr said he could not properly comment on the idea of shooting galleries, because he does not have all the facts. "It's a very complicated issue," he said Sunday night. "It involves the law - Criminal Code - and health care. We'd need a lot of consultation before proceeding on that." Dr. Brent Friesen, the CRHA's Medical Officer of Health, said the city has other steps to take in dealing with heroin addiction before it considers opening shooting galleries. "There's a need for a methadone treatment program in Calgary and that's what we're focusing on as a priority," Friesen said. Calgary is the only major city in North America without a program to rehabilitate heroin users using the drug methadone. Methadone is a legal narcotic that simulates the effects of heroin. It suppresses withdrawal and relieves craving for the drug. But Friesen said he was monitoring the shooting gallery idea. He said it's important for Vancouver to have an effective strategy in place, because a recent survey showed 40 per cent of Calgary injection drug users said they had also injected in Vancouver.
------------------------------------------------------------------- Mexico Battles Plague Of Corruption ('The Santa Maria Times' In California Examines Official Attempts To Cope With The Rampant Corruption Of Mexico City Police) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 09:45:40 -0700 From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) To: mapnews@mapinc.org Subject: MN: US: OPED: Mexico Battles Plague of Corruption Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/ Newshawk: Jo-D Harrison Source: Santa Maria Times (CA) Contact: Santa Maria Times PO Box 400 Santa Maria, CA 93456-0400 Fax: 1-805-928-5657 Pubdate: Monday, September 21 1998 Section: Opinion, World View, page A-4 Author: Holger Jensen MEXICO BATTLES PLAGUE OF CORRUPTION Mexico is a country where crooked cops are the norm rather than the exception and the worst of them prey on the capital. Authorities in Mexico City admit a daily average of 700 crimes involving weapons and resulting in the deaths of at least six people. That's the official figure. The Mexican press says it's much higher. A metropolis of 8.5 million, Mexico City has 28,000 policemen. They are blamed for muggings, bank robberies, kidnaps, murders, rapes, auto thefts, holdups of passenger buses hijackings of freight trucks. About 70 policemen are fired every month for failing drug tests. But police involvement in the drug trade and other crimes is so routine that only the most horrific raise public ire. One such case occurred in July when three teenage girls were kidnapped by four uniformed officers they had asked for directions. The patrolmen took the girls to the stables of a mounted police detachment where they were held captive for four days and repeatedly raped. The 18-year-old escaped by hiding in a horse stall; the younger girls were later found wandering incoherent and half-naked on a city street. Fifteen officers were arrested, the mounted police unit was disbanded and 80 other policemen were placed under house arrest pending investigation. But the powerful Mexican Employers' Federation said that was not enough to stem what it called "a growing and uncontrolled phenomenon of insecurity" posed by the security forces. It called for the establishment of a nationwide database on criminal cops - something Mexico has never had - so those fired by one police force cannot simply get jobs on another or, worse yet, join the legion of criminal gangs run by former cops. Ideally, says Mexico City's mayor, the only way to reform the force is to fire all the cops and begin again. But, he points out, "past administrations have fired thousands and then we just end up with thousands of armed, unemployed cops on the street, many of whom become criminals." So he has started a new incentive program to help underpaid officers stay straight and supplement their $300 monthly wages. They will get $30 for each felony arrest, or booted off the force if they're caught accepting bribes for letting criminals go. Skeptics doubt this will turn bad cops around. More likely, they say, it will turn into another extortion racket with officers arresting innocent citizens just to get the bonus. Corruption begins even before cadets enter the police academy. A study by two Mexican sociologists, recently published in Nexos magazine, revealed that applicants who take the test to join the police force can get the test result they want "based on the amount of money placed between the pages of the test." Once they reach the academy, said Nexos, they are "trained to rob with professionalism." And on the street, they have to extort money from drivers, shopkeepers and criminals because they have to pay their superiors a "daily quota." From small crimes, aspiring officers quickly graduate to bigger ones. Police in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas were found to be driving 200 stolen cars from the United States. And virtually all the top law enforcement officials in Morelos state were arrested or investigated for criminal activity, mostly kidnapping. One ring operating in Morelos under police protection was notorious for cutting off a victim's ear to get quick ransom payments. When the police go bad, Mexico traditionally turns to its army. The military, for example, has been entrusted with a bigger role in the war on drugs on the assumption that better-trained, better-paid soldiers are less susceptible to bribery and other forms of corruption than the police. But that illusion was shattered by the arrest and imprisonment last year of Mexico's top drug-fighting general, who was found to be in the pay of a cocaine cartel. In the words of DEA agent quoted by the New York Times earlier this year - before President Clinton certified Mexico as "cooperating" in the war on drugs - "much of our work in Mexico is an exercise in futility." Holger Jensen is international editor of the Rocky Mountain News in Denver.
------------------------------------------------------------------- In Celebration Of Drug Smugglers ('The Baltimore Sun' Says In Northwest Mexico, Adoration Is Growing For Smugglers Of Illegal Drugs, Bringing Forth A Culture With A Characteristic Dress, Music, Religion, And Attitude Toward Life And Government - The 'Narcocorrido' Has Become The Favored Pop Music For Much Of Northwest Mexico) Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 16:54:36 -0700 From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) To: mapnews@mapinc.org Subject: MN: Mexico: In Celebration Of Drug Smugglers Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/ Newshawk: Rob Ryan Source: Baltimore Sun (MD) Contact: letters@baltsun.com Website: http://www.sunspot.net/ Pubdate: 21 Sep 1998 Author: Sam Quinones , Special To The Sun IN CELEBRATION OF DRUG SMUGGLERS `Narcoculture': In northwest Mexico, a culture of adoration grows for narcotics smugglers, who beat the odds by getting their goods across the border to feed the habits of gringos. CULIACAN, Mexico -- Near the stage at a recent concert by the band Los Tigres del Norte stand four young men in cowboy boots, large belt buckles, tight jeans and cowboy hats. Three are college students -- studying computers, architecture and dentistry -- and one is a teacher. But they are dressed like country boys, as if they were not, in fact, born and raised in Culiacan, a city of more than 700,000 people, capital of the Pacific coast state of Sinaloa. They identify with the hills because that is where narcotics smugglers came from. A "narcoculture" is growing in northwestern Mexico, where providing gringos their drugs has been an economic activity for nearly three decades. Drug smugglers are imitated, admired and venerated as heroes who take their product across the border against all odds, beating the authorities and gringos. The culture has a characteristic dress, music and attitude toward life and government. It even has its religious side. The poor of Sinaloa have for years believed that Jesus Malverde, a legendary bandit whom the government hanged in 1909, grants miracles. The press has dubbed him "the Narco Saint," as apparently many drug smugglers call on him for protection in their work. Typically, "narcofashion" includes a cowboy hat, boots from the leather of some exotic animal -- most recently, ostrich skin -- gold chains, a large belt buckle, a sports suit of finely pressed slacks and jacket, often with snakeskin lapels. This style is known as the "Chalinazo" -- for Chalino Sanchez, a legendary and murdered singer of narco ballads. Silk shirts -- usually with ornate designs in brown, beige and yellow -- have been popular for more than a year. The originals were Versaces and went for 3,000 pesos -- about $375. Chinese knockoffs run about 200 pesos, double that for shirts with gold thread. Many shops stock shirts with images of Jesus Malverde or the Virgin of Guadalupe on the back. Other shirts are adorned with marijuana leaves, AK-47s, cowboy hats and playing cards. The "narcocorrido" has become the favored pop music for much of northwest Mexico. Ballads -- telling of bandits or revolutionary heroes -- have been a part of Mexican folk music for at least a century. Recently, the "narcoballad" has taken over the genre. Narcocorridos limn the exploits of drug smugglers -- executions, betrayals, shootouts with the "federales" -- bloody events set to a polka beat and obliviously cheerful accordion line. Hundreds upon hundreds of bands play nothing but narcocorridos. And some get too cozy with their subjects, accepting sponsorships from drug gangs. "That's what we want," says Jesus Garcia, a Culiacan promoter of a young norteno band, Juventud Norteno. "We want some narco to hear us and sponsor us. Any group that's going to make it big has to be sponsored by a narco. The band that doesn't have a sponsor ends up playing cantinas." In the summer of 1994, members of Los Huracanes del Norte were injured when a car bomb went off outside a hotel where they were playing a party for a relative of Rafael Caro Quintero, who is in prison for the murder of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique Camarena. In its accompanying violence, as well as its subject matter, the narcocorrido has its parallel in gangster rap in the United States. In both genres, most songs are never heard on the radio. Radio stations have an understanding with the Mexican government that they won't play the narcocorridos. Chalino Sanchez is the music's Tupak Shakur, an American rapper gunned down two years ago in Las Vegas. Sanchez was taken from his car after a Culiacan show in May 1992. His body was found the next morning, with two bullets in his head. The case remains unsolved, but Sanchez's influence lives on. A number of narcocorrido singers imitate his raspy tenor; one even goes by the stage name "Chalinillo" -- Little Chalino. Narcoculture bespeaks an acceptance of drug smuggling as normal to everyday life. "You can be talking with a drug trafficker and it's the most common thing in the world," says Daniel Valencia, the teacher at the Tigres concert. "You talk about it like you're talking about your girlfriend or a soccer game." To live in Culiacan is to be conversant with the legends of specific "narcotraficantes," whose names are as recognizable as those of great athletes or musicians: Baltazar Diaz was gunned down in the streets of Mexico City. Lamberto Quintero fell in a shootout in Culiacan. The slain "El Borrego" is immortalized in a song by Los Tucanes de Tijuana, one of the hottest narcocorrido bands, said to be sponsored by the Arellano Felix drug gang in Tijuana. (The band denies the allegation.) Some narcos never die. "They said `El Cochiloco' [Manuel Salcido] was dead four times and he still kept coming back," says Armando Salcedo, the computer student. "People say he's still alive." People are saying the same thing now about Carrillo Fuentes. Sinaloa, where marijuana and opium poppies grow nicely in the mountains, is the wellspring of drug smuggling in Mexico. Most of the important Mexican drug cartel leaders in the past 25 years have been from here, though those still at large usually live somewhere else. "We've been living for more than 50 years with the drug-trafficking culture," says Oscar Loza, president of the Sinaloa Commission for the Defense of Human Rights. "When we talk of a second and third generation living with drug trafficking, they begin seeing it as something natural, not something criminal. Many people still see it as a crime, obviously, but more and more see it as just another economic activity." Smuggling may be prohibited legally, Loza says, but not socially. The government, by contrast, has little credibility among Sinaloans, especially those from the mountains. A series of military anti-drug sweeps in the 1970s, organized by the U.S. and Mexican governments, resulted in ferocious and arbitrary abuses of the population. It set off a great country-to-city migration. Moreover, the government is unable or unwilling to control crime in Sinaloa -- fewer than 10 percent of murders are ever solved -- or even to provide basic services in many far-flung communities. But drug smugglers have been known to pave streets, build clinics and pay for operations. "When drug lord Miguel Felix Gallardo went to jail in the mid-1980s," says Tomas Castillo, the dentistry student, "people were really sad. Here these guys aren't enemies, they're friends. They're really well-liked."
------------------------------------------------------------------- Use Of Crack Increases To Record Level (Britain's 'Independent' Says The Home Office And Criminologists Have Discovered That Record Amounts Of Crack Cocaine Are Available Throughout Britain) Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 16:54:26 -0700 From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) To: mapnews@mapinc.org Subject: MN: UK: Use Of Crack Increases To Record Level Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/ Newshawk: Martin Cooke (mjc1947@cyberclub.iol.ie) Source: Independent, The (UK) Contact: letters@independent.co.uk Website: http://www.independent.co.uk/ Pubdate: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 Author: Jason Bennetto, Crime Correspondent USE OF CRACK INCREASES TO RECORD LEVEL RECORD AMOUNTS of crack cocaine, the highly addictive drug, are available on the streets of Britain, the Home Office and criminologists have discovered. While crime surveys have found that 1 per cent of 16 to 29- year-olds have taken crack - about the same number as heroin - experts believe the problem is underestimated because users of the drug tend to lie about their habit. Cocaine seizures by customs and excise have risen sharply in the past three years, from 940kg in 1995 to 2,074kg last year. New Home Office research has found that more than a quarter of people arrested in a study in London and Manchester were taking crack cocaine, and that one in 10 arrested in Nottingham had used it. More women tested positively than men. Prostitutes are among the most frequent users of crack. But the drug, which costs as little as UKP10 a hit, is not confined to the stereotype of drug users. A vicar, a 14-year-old girl and a group of pensioners are among the growing number of people who have become hooked on crack, inquiries by The Independent have found. The police are particularly concerned about any rise in the substance's popularity because crack users are among the most risk-taking and volatile drug takers and likely to turn to crime to pay for their habits. Research and reports from drug agencies show that crack - usually tiny "rocks" created by baking cocaine powder - is available in most cities in Britain and is being used by people from a wider range of age groups and social backgrounds than in the past. It is also becoming more widely used in the club scene. Among the clients being helped by one drug agency in London are a vicar who is stealing up to UKP200 a week from the church collection plate to pay for his habit, stockbrokers, lawyers, and teenage girls who have been forced into prostitution after being given crack. Tim Bottomley, who is carrying out research on crack for the Home Office, said: "You could walk up to a punter in the street and buy it in most cities in Britain." Previous co-research by Mr Bottomley, leader of the Piper Project, a drugs unit in south Manchester, in 1996 found that crack cocaine addicts in north-west England were typically spending about UKP20,000 a year on drugs and were particularly involved in offences of burglary, theft and assault. A Home Office official confirmed the trend yesterday: "There is more available than ever before." Crack is usually smoked in a pipe and produces an intense high that lasts for about two minutes, followed by about 20 minutes of low-level euphoria before the effect wears off, leaving a craving for further hits. Among the side-effects is a long low period that follows the short high. This can cause mental health problems ranging from mild depression to cocaine psychosis with symptoms similar to schizophrenia. Warnings from drugs experts in the late 1980s that Britain was about to experience a crack epidemic similar to that raging in American inner cities were not borne out. But it appears that crack - mainly from cocaine from South America - is entering the UK in record amounts. 'Easier than ordering a pizza' Sophie SPENT UKP250 a day to feed her addiction to crack cocaine. "I didn't look like a drug addict. I was losing weight, but I still took care of my looks and how I dressed. "The drugs were so easy to get. I would buy UKP50 worth and someone used to come around to my house to deliver them. "I once smoked UKP1,000 of crack in a day. After I had finished, the buzz just disappeared - it only lasts about 5-10 minutes, although it's a very powerful hit." Sophie has been drug-free for five months since getting help from the 493 Crack Awareness Programme, run by the drugs agency Addaction in Hackney, east London. Fashionably dressed, attractive and articulate, with a lively three-year-old son, Sophie does not look like a stereotypical former junkie. She started on drugs while living in the United States, but had been off "crack" for seven years when she arrived in Britain. "Things became difficult for me and I just relapsed." A year ago she was arrested for cheque fraud. She was referred to 493 Project and since then her life has changed. "It was such a relief to tell my partner, and I've got a nice home and a little job now," she said. But could she still get crack if she wanted it? "I could have it delivered here in four or five minutes - it's easier than ordering a pizza."
------------------------------------------------------------------- Drugs Seizures Double (The Belfast 'Telegraph' Says Figures Released Today Reveal Illegal Drugs With An Estimated Street Value Of More Than £6 Million Were Seized By The RUC Last Year - Double The Total For The Previous Year - Yet Still There Was A Disturbing Growth In Northern Ireland's Drugs Culture) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 18:20:00 -0700 From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) To: mapnews@mapinc.org Subject: MN: UK: Drugs Seizures Double Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/ Newshawk: Martin Cooke (mjc1947@cyberclub.iol.ie) Source: Belfast Telegraph Contact: editor@belfasttelegraph.co.uk Pubdate: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 Author: Peter McVerry DRUGS SEIZURES DOUBLE ILLEGAL drugs with an estimated street value of more than UKP6m were seized by the RUC last year - double the total for the previous year, it was revealed today. The RUC Drug Squad recovered UKP6,614,955 worth of drugs in 1997, compared to UKP3,282,110 in 1996 - a rise of over UKP3m. In comparison, statistics released in Scotland show UKP9m of drug seizures last year in an area roughly three times the size of Northern Ireland. The RUC warned that there are two reasons for the record seizures - police inroads against dealers and a disturbing growth in a Northern Ireland's drugs culture. Figures show that arrests for drug offences in the province also rose in the financial year 1997-98 from 909 to 1,017. Drugs recovered included the province's first seizure of the deadly drug 'crack' cocaine in Ballymena in July. More than UKP1m worth of Ecstasy was seized last year, compared to none in 1990. LSD seizures increased a mammoth 220-fold in the same period. The finds in one town - Newry - equalled all the seizures in Northern Ireland for the previous 10 years. And last year the quantity of cannabis seized was 12 times that of 1990. Among the totals seized were 363.5 grams of cocaine, over 78,000 Ecstasy tablets and 448 kilos of cannabis resin. A large proportion of the increase in the monetary value of the drugs seized last year can be attributed to Northern Ireland's biggest ever drugs haul - UKP2m of cannabis recovered at Belfast docks in June 1997. That smashed the previous record set in March of the same year when almost UKP500,000 of cannabis was seized in Coleraine. But the latest Chief Constable's report warns that Northern Ireland cannot become complacent in the fight against drugs. "The large seizures of controlled substances reflects not only positive police action taken to reduce the supply of controlled substances but is also, unfortunately indicative of the persistent development of a drugs culture in Northern Ireland," the report said. Drugs officers said there is also concern that heroin has gained a foothold in Northern Ireland. "Of great concern is the increasing popularity of an injecting culture amongst heroin users," said police. Drug workers say the quality of illegal drugs available in Northern Ireland has also increased - raising concerns about the potential for overdoses.
------------------------------------------------------------------- Drug Policy Foundation Network News (A Monthly Publication For DPF's Advocacy Network, Including - HHS-SAMHSA Release Results Of Annual National Drug Survey; Risky Alcohol And Tobacco Use Among Youth Outpaces Use Of Illicit Drugs; Survey Shows 'Drug Free School Zones' To Be Anything But; Prospective College Students Not Exempt From Drug War Hysteria; Eye On America - Bill Would Require Drug Tests In Schools; House Seeks To Drug Test All Teenage Drivers) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 16:33:20 EDT Errors-To: dpf-mod@dpf.org Reply-To: dpnews@dpf.org Originator: dpnews@dpf.org Sender: dpnews@dpf.org From: "Drug Policy News Service" (dpf-mod@dpf.org) To: Multiple recipients of list (dpnews@dpf.org) Subject: DPF's Network News (September 1998) DRUG POLICY FOUNDATION'S NETWORK NEWS A Monthly Publication for DPF's Advocacy Network With Congress adjourned for the month of August, we offer this special "Back to School" edition of Network News. As our nation's youth and young adults return to their studies, we focus on the challenges that they face in receiving a quality education that prepares them for the future. The everyday anxieties of pre-teens and young adults, as well as thrill-seeking, boredom, and pressure from peers often lead to youthful experimentation with drugs. The easy money of selling drugs has lured many youth into the illicit drug trade, and the increasing use of the criminal justice system to deal with youthful drug users and the proliferation of zero-tolerance drug policies have left many young people marginalized from the school system and society. In this issue of Network News, we present some findings from the most recent studies and surveys related to youth drug use. We encourage all of our readers, especially parents and guardians, to become familiar with the drug policies of your local school districts. Talk to your kids about the real risks of drug use and the harmful consequences of drug abuse. If you need the facts, check out the websites of Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse http://www.mamas.org or the Institute for the Study of Drug Dependence http://www.isdd.co.uk. *** HHS-SAMHSA Release Results of Annual National Drug Survey Drug use by young people increased last year, led by rising marijuana smoking among teenagers, according to a government survey. On August 21, Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala released the findings of the annual "National Household Survey on Drug Abuse" (NHSDA). According to the survey the number of Americans using illicit drugs remained flat in 1997, with an estimated 13.9 million Americans (6.4% of the U.S. population age 12 and over) indicating they had used an illicit drug in the month prior to being interviewed. However, in a press release issued with the report, HHS noted that young people age 12-17 reported an increase in current use of drugs, primarily marijuana. According to the NHSDA, marijuana continues to be the most frequently used illicit drug; about 60% of all illicit drug users reported only using marijuana. However, the survey also revealed that an estimated 111 million persons age 12 and over were current alcohol users (51% of the population) and of these, about 31.9 million persons (15.3%) engaged in binge drinking. Gen. Barry McCaffrey, director of the White House Office on National Drug Control Policy, seemed most concerned about illicit drugs, while ignoring the problems associated with binge drinking and drinking and driving by youth. According to McCaffrey, "This study confirms the significant threat from illegal drugs to our children. We embrace today's findings as further proof of the need to fully fund our National Drug Control Strategy." DPF and other organizations with an interest in drug policy were quick to respond to both NHSDA's findings and to the administration's spin on the report, which serves as the primary source of statistical information on the use of illegal drugs by the United States population. "Today's teenagers have received the most intensive anti-drug programming of any in America's history," countered DPF Communications Director Rob Stewart in an August 21 news release that was quoted in a Washington Times front-page story, "yet youth drug use continues to climb. Furthermore, young people have consistently reported that illegal drugs like marijuana are readily available. The Household Survey shows us that the current 'war on drugs' is failing young people even as it tries to save them." "Simply put, arresting adults does not prevent kids from smoking pot," said Chuck Thomas, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project, in response to the Household Survey's perennial finding that adolescent marijuana use continues in the face of prohibition. "Teens are the victims, because the government spends valuable resources on the criminal justice system instead of on effective education," Thomas concluded. According to Stewart, "this latest increase of drug use among youth provides further reason to investigate alternative policies that can more effectively control drug use while reducing crime, corruption, and disease." *** Risky Alcohol and Tobacco Use Among Youth Outpaces Use of Illicit Drugs On August 14, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the "Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance-United States, 1997" (MMWR). The MMWR included the results of a 1997 national youth risk behavior survey which showed that 33.4% of youth in grades 9-12 recently engaged in heavy drinking, and 50.8% had drunk alcohol in the past 30 days. The report also found that 36.6% of surveyed youth had ridden with a driver who had been drinking alcohol. In addition, 36.4% of high school students had smoked cigarettes more than once in the 30 days preceding the survey, and 26.2% reported having used marijuana in the previous 30 days. In addition to the national survey, the MMWR summarizes results from 33 state surveys, 3 territorial surveys, and 17 local surveys conducted among high school students. According the MMWR, nationwide 79.1% of students reported having had at least one drink of alcohol during their lifetime, and 79.2% of students said that they had tried cigarette smoking. By contrast, 47.1% of students reported having used marijuana during their lifetime, 8.2% used some form of cocaine, 3.1% used illegal steroids, and 17% of the students had used other illegal drugs during their lifetime. Approximately 1 in 50 (2.1%) of students reported having injected drugs. The MMWR also reported some significant differences along racial and gender lines. For example, Hispanic students (14.4%) were significantly more likely than white and black students (8.0% and 1.9%, respectively) to have ever used cocaine, and white students (8.0%) were significantly more likely than black students (1.9%) to have done so. Conversely, black male students (59%) were significantly more likely than white male students to have ever used marijuana. However, Hispanic and white students (83.1% and 81.3%, respectively) were significantly more likely than black students (73.0%) to have had at least one drink of alcohol during their lifetime. "This report provides important information about the multi-leveled and targeted education and prevention efforts that we must undertake to address the behaviors that pose the greatest health risk to youth and young adults," said H. Alexander Robinson, DPF's public policy director. "However, I fear that once again too many decision-makers will allow the hype and politics of the drug war to blind them to the reality of the day-to-day challenges faced by our children." *** Survey Shows "Drug Free School Zones" to be Anything But Despite numerous local, state, and federal laws and proclamations, countless signs, poster campaigns, and election-year promises, a recent survey found that "more kids have seen drug deals at their schools than in their neighborhoods." The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse's (CASA) 1997 "Back to School Survey" found that 29% of high school students say a student in their school died from an alcohol- or drug-related incident in the past year. Even more troubling, 76% of high school students and 46% of middle school students reported that drugs are kept, used, or sold on their school grounds. "We need to develop reasoned and compassionate policies to deal with youth drug involvement," said DPF Communications Director Rob Stewart. "Politicians keep looking for the quick fix, the one-liners, like 'drug free schools zones,' which have been made a mockery of," Stewart continued. "The misinformation about drugs and the lure of the drug trade are all too familiar to many American youth. Communities across the country must engage in an open and honest dialogue to discover how we address the very real and very complex questions of community values, family stability, and the root causes of drug abuse, addiction, and why youth enter the drug trade." Yet, the participants in the survey appear to suggest that what is needed is a tougher, less tolerant approach. Half of the students (52%) and principals (53%) support drug testing of all students, compared with 42% of parents and 38% of teachers. "It's a sad day in America when a majority of youth are asking to have their constitutional rights violated," said DPF Senior Policy Analyst Scott Ehlers. "Obviously American Government teachers are not doing a very good job at teaching Justice Thurgood Marshall's valuable civics lesson: 'There is no drug exception to the Constitution....'" One finding of the study seemed to resonate with DPF and others who are concerned about the risk that drug use and abuse pose to young people. "Parental involvement is a critical protective factor," said Joseph A. Califano Jr., chairman of CASA, at the release of its fourth survey of teens and school officials on substance abuse. "The more often teens eat dinner with their parents, the less likely they are to smoke, drink, or use marijuana." "Clearly, close, open and honest communications within stable families can play a major role in influencing the decisions that young people make about alcohol and drugs," Stewart noted. However, he also cautioned that we must address the fact that many children lack that kind of support. "Children without supportive families and teenagers who experiment with or regularly use alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, or hard drugs deserve our compassion, honest understanding, and sincere efforts to help them succeed in life. Counseling, after-school activities, and mentoring programs should be available for youth without a stable family structure, regardless of whether they use drugs or not." *** Prospective College Students not Exempt from Drug War Hysteria Continuing to prefer the failed strategy of punishment and isolation of drug users, the U.S. Congress passed a bill that would unfairly ban financial aid to deserving and needy students. On March 18, Mark Souder (R-Ind.), offered an amendment that would ban a student who has been convicted of drug possession or sale from receiving student aid. Apparently unmoved by the arguments by some Democrats that the amendment as written would discriminate against minorities, the provision was adopted. H.R. 6, passed on May 6, and S. 1882, passed on June 9, would reauthorize the Higher Education Act of 1965, which aims to enhance opportunities for students pursuing college education through grants, loans and work-study assistance. One provision of these bills would ban financial aid to "a student who has been convicted of any offenses under Federal or State law involving the possession or sale of a controlled substance." Nationwide, only 11% of drug users are African American, who make up 12.6% of the population. However, African Americans constitute almost 37% of those arrested for drug violations, over 42% of those in federal prisons for drug violations, and almost 60% of those in state prisons for drug felonies. One in three African American men between the ages of 20 and 29 years old is under correctional supervision or control. "African Americans continue to be the most predominate casualties of the drug war," according to Imani Woods, coordinator of DPF's African American Community Education program, and founder of Progressive Solutions, a Seattle-based harm reduction consulting firm. "Education is key to achieving success in America. To unfairly restrict educational opportunities in the name of eliminating drug use is unconscionable," Woods admonished. As of the publication of this article, the bill awaits a House-Senate conference. *** Eye on America - Bill Would Require Drug Tests in Schools Congressman John Peterson (R-Penn.) has introduced a bill that would require local educational agencies to perform random suspicionless drug tests on students in grades 7-12. H.R. 4378, the "Empowering Parents to Fight Drugs Act of 1998," would authorize grants to state educational agencies to perform random drug tests for marijuana, amphetamines, phencyclidine (PCP), opiates, and cocaine. "This legislation is flawed for a variety of reasons," according to DPF Public Policy Director H. Alexander Robinson. "Drug testing is invasive and has been ruled to be a bodily search by the U.S. Supreme Court, thus making unconditional federal support and promotion of drug testing constitutionally suspect," Robinson suggested. "Equally troubling is the fact that this random drug testing scheme is being proposed without a real justification. Suspicionless drug testing is particularly objectionable; it offends the principles of civil liberties, and is arguably un-American," he said. While the bill offers parents the opportunity to "withdraw their child from participation" in the random drug testing program, Robinson notes that this too could cause undue damage to the family relationship. "As a father I object to the idea of such testing," Robinson stated, "but what would be the consequences for my son if I withdrew him from such a program? Would he be subjected to differential treatment because of my views?" Introduced in July, the bill has few co-sponsors. In the current political climate that could change quickly. DPF is monitoring this as well as several other drug policy measures making their way though the House and Senate. And Finally... *** House Seeks to Drug Test All Teenage Drivers On Wednesday, September 16, the House passed H.R. 4550, the "Drug Demand Reduction Act" by a vote of 396-9. The bill includes the "Drug Free Teenage Drivers Act," which establishes an incentive grant program for states to drug test all teenage applicants for a driver's license. If a state chooses, all other first time applicants for a driver's license could be tested as well, regardless of age. The act also includes, among other provisions: the "Drug-Free Workplace Act" (Title I, Subtitle A), which establishes a grant program to promote drug testing programs in small businesses; the "Drug-Free Parents Empowerment Act" (Title I, Subtitle G) which authorizes $10,000,000 a year to be given to parents groups involved in drug prevention; the Commission on the Role of Medical Education in Reducing Substance Abuse (Title II, Subtitle B); and a Sense of the Congress statement that asks states to reject the legalization of drugs through legislation and ballot initiatives (Title III, Subtitle B). *** DPF's Network News Network News is DPF's monthly newsletter that will keep you updated on the latest legislative and regulatory drug policy proposals in Congress and the Administration. To receive Network News and legislative Action Alerts, join DPF's Advocacy Network. Just send us your name, fax number, and/or email. Drug Policy Foundation 4455 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite B-500 Washington, DC 20008-2328 ph: (202) 537-5005 fax: (202) 537-3007 dpf@dpf.org http://www.dpf.org *** Network News was brought to you by the Drug Policy News Service, a service of the Drug Policy Foundation. To sign up for the Drug Policy News Service, send email to listproc@dpf.org with the following in the message: subscribe dpnews. -------------------------------------------------------------------
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